I'm a guest over at The Book Smugglers as part of their Smugglivius festivities, in which each guest recaps how well 2010 has treated them and share the top reads you encountered. Here is an excerpt of my post.
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It’s the end of the year? Already? Nah, that can’t be true… *checks calendar* Crap! You are most definitely right on target with this one. What the heck was I doing this year? Did the feline overlords conquer Earth, yet? *listens to the invisible man whispering something in my ear* Oh, that is scheduled for 2012. Death by kittehs. Mwa-ha-ha.
Since I don’t really exist [I’m an elaborate scheme devised by The Book Smugglers] I can’t tell you how my year has been so far. So I will lie. Yes, I will lie. I slew mutant penguins, played banjo for the Queen and received critical acclaim for my role as Prince Siegfried in the ballet Swan Lake. I guess the tights won the crowd over.
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As usual, I try to be funny, but I do get serious and you can find my sort-of top book for 2010 [HERE]
Do you wonder how a book is made? If you are an avid reader and the sight of a book makes you glow, then you probably have wondered about a novel’s journey from idea to hard/softcover delight on your local bookstore’s shelf. Did the author discover the story whole and intact? Did the story need countless revisions? How much is researched and how much is the product of the author’s imagination? What did the author have to go through to publish that novel you just love? Beyond the Wordcount is the feature that will give a behind-the-scene look to the story behind the story, the things that you will never guess as they stay off the pages.
This week’s guest is J. Robert King. He is the author of one my favorite novels Angel of Death [Review],which impressed me with its realistic depiction of a monster. If you think American Psycho was frightening, because Patrick Bateman could very well exist, than the Angel in King's novel will stop your pulse with his sound logic.
Bio: J. Robert King is the award-winning author of over twenty novels, most recently The Shadow of Reichenbach Falls and the Mad Merlin trilogy. Fifteen years ago, Rob founded the Alliterates, a cabal of writers in the Midwest and West Coast of the U.S. Rob also often takes to the stage, starring in local productions such as The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) and Arsenic and Old Lace. He lives in Wisconsin with his lovely wife, three brilliant sons, and three less-than brilliant cats.
Blurb:
The angel of death in Chicago oversees all people in the megalopolis, making sure their deaths fit their lives. Though most deaths naturally do, those that result from serial murder do not, so the angel spends much time trailing a serial killer in his patch.
On the trail of one such man, he encounters a cop and falls in love with her. When he is assigned to kill her, though, he has to make a choice between divinity and humanity.
The Task: I asked Robert to write a post detailing he created his character and pieced the psyche of a sociopath-monster. What I received exceeded my expectations. King not only answered my question about Azrael, but also presented a genesis for his novel.
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People wonder where Angel of Death came from. It is, after all, a dark book.
Well, the quick explanation is that the book I'd written before it had been rejected by multiple publishers, and I was pissed off and wanted to write a pissed-off book. That's the quick explanation, and it's the truth, but it's not the whole truth.
Let's look at the elements of Angel of Death. First, of course, there's an angel, a servant of God who is charged to kill us. If this angel were human, he would be a serial killer. It is his very divinity that makes his actions right and good. Were this angel to lose his divinity and become human, quiet suddenly the work he has been mandated to do becomes the most monstrous act imaginable.
So, if God tells you to do it, you are justified in doing it, right?
Think about suicide bombers, sixteen-year-old kids from slums blowing themselves up. We think this is horrific, but the bombers do not, nor the men who strap explosives to them, nor the mothers who mourn them as holy martyrs. All of these people know that God wants sixteen-year-old boys to have their bodies ripped apart and have their bones fly as shrapnel to rip apart others.
Sin is disobedience to God, so if God wants you to kill yourself, then living is sin. If God wants you to kill the other passengers on the commuter train, then sparing them is sin. If God wants an old man to take his only son up to a mountain and ram a knife into the boy's heart, the old man is not a murderer but a saint.
That is, in part, what Angel of Death is. It's an exploration of the terrifying and grotesque nature of faith that justifies such atrocities.
Of course, to pull off a novel like this, I had to do a lot of reading about actual serial killers-- peering into their psyches, studying their crimes, watching them do what they did to their victims. I was appalled. I could not have imagined such depravity. What human beings are capable of doing to each other beggars the mind. I had launched this book to rail against God but found human crimes to be equally horrendous. Just when I was about to nail God to the wall, I discovered I had to nail myself there, too, and every other human being.
Like I said, this book came from a pretty dark place.
So, I started to write. At first, it was just me and the angel, wrestling. But I knew I wouldn't win a match like that. I brought in Donna Leland to distract the angel so that maybe I could escape. She was the good human there trapped between me and my monster. And the novel just unfolded that way. I didn't so much write it but chronicle it, observing with a kind of sick terror as Donna struggled to understand and then to love and then to escape Azrael.
I hid behind Donna, hoping she could save us both.
All right, so you know two thirds of the story, the railing against God and the railing against humanity. But the third part of Angel of Death—the part that makes it especially unsettling to my family and friends—is that I put all of them in it. I set the scenes in the town where I live and the town where I grew up and even the flood-prone Methodist campground where I spent many summers as a youth. The angel kills a young couple driving through Chicago on their way to Disney World on their honeymoon—a precise description of my wife and I when first we were married. The angel kills Mr. Strange, a garbage man in my hometown who was reprimanded for stalking my little sister. The angel kills all sorts of people I know, but mostly kills me in different phases of life.
Over and over, that angel is killing me. It was the one way I could escape him. Let him kill me again.
Yes, Angel of Death came from a really dark place.
It's a furious book, a murderous book, and I'm glad it is on paper now instead of in my mind. Of course, if the Angel of Death has his way, this book will somehow still be the death of me.
Even in a city the size of London I’m pretty easy to pick out in the crowd. I’m not talking about my astonishing good looks either (although they are a natural obstacle to getting from A to B with the minimum of fuss and bother). Look for the guy reading a comic book on the train. See him? He’s reading either ‘Conan the Cimmerian’, ‘The Goon’ or ‘The Walking Dead’ and he’s me. London transport is one of the best places to really get stuck into escapist literature, being so bad that the urge to ‘escape’ is stronger than anywhere else! You don’t see a lot of comic books being read though. In fact, I may be the only person who is comfortable taking a comic out and reading it on the train...
I’d never really given this a lot of thought until Harry happened to drop the subject of the social ramifications of being a comic book reader into an email conversation that we were having. In Harry’s words, “Does that instantly make you a geek or whether social status upon what is read is pretty much a myth?” As it inevitably turned out, I was too busy reading comic books (‘Nemesis the Warlock’ rules!) to give the matter the level of consideration that it deserved...
I’m not just picking words out of thin air and throwing them onto the page though! Here’s what I think...
If you’re anything like me then the odds are that you were well and truly a geek before you even saw a comic book for the first time. My interest in comics sprang from books and films that I enjoyed and wanted to find out more about. Getting into comics was a natural progression really; if you wanted to find out more about ‘Batman’ after having seen the films then where else was there to go? (Bear in mind that this was years before I was able to spend hours finding this information online) From there it was a small step to ‘X-Men’, ‘Ghost’ (shame that one came to an end), ‘Zombie World’ and the stuff I’m reading today.
In that respect, being a comic book reader doesn’t make you a geek. Not at all. How can it if you’re one already?
Despite that, there is a stigma though isn’t there? It doesn’t matter about the story, if it’s told in pictures then people assume a level of immaturity that just isn’t there. They don’t just assume this about the book either; the person reading it is fair game. Again, this is in my experience (I’ve had this attitude off some people) but I wouldn’t be surprised if you’d had a similar one...
Comics are one of those things that are very much a part of people’s childhoods and it’s an association that casts a dark shadow over what they see on the bookshelves today. If you’re no longer a child, would you want to carry on doing things that you see as childish (although there’s a definition that’s open for debate...)? I personally would answer a big ol’ resounding “Yes!” but that’s just me :o) Hollywood also has much to answer for as far as this goes with it’s depictions of an ‘average comic book reader’ that can barely dress himself appropriately let alone interact with the adult world. Put these things together (along with the ever constant ‘book snobbery’ where people put down other’s favourites and raise up their own) and you’ve got a situation where reading comic books makes you a geek in the eye of the beholder. Not in a good way either.
So where does this leave us comic book reading types? Damned if you do or damned if you don’t? As far as I’m concerned it pretty much leaves me right where I was at the beginning, happily reading comic books on the train home from work. If anyone fancies peering over my shoulder and having a read too then I’m cool with that; I always read cool stuff and it would be great if anyone else fancied coming along for the ride.
If you’re a regular reader of this blog then I’m probably preaching to the converted in any case. I’ll wager that you don’t really care what some random stranger thinks of your reading choice. That’s the way it should be; I’ve always thought that it was more important to just read than worry about what it is that you’re reading. As far as I’m concerned, a well-written comic is as valid a piece of literature as a well-written book.
Keep an eye open for me on the train tomorrow, I’ll be the one reading ‘Nemesis: Book 2’ and not really giving a stuff what anyone else thinks… ;o)
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Graeme Flory: I can say a lot of things about Graeme and I have already said them a great while, but one thing you can expect for certain is that he is one fin Brit with extensive reading habits and a well refined taste for the written word. Also he is my evil twin. Check his blog out at Graeme's Fantasy Book Review.
When Harry asked me to be involved in his ongoing discussions about comic books I couldn’t have been more thrilled. While I grew up reading the occasional funny book, my true introduction to what comics were and what they could do came when I was an adult, sometime around the mid 1990’s. I had traveled to New York City to spend a week with a good friend, and while there he handed me Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns and all that existed at that point of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series (the final issue was released while I was visiting). He insisted I read them. My reading life has truly not been the same since.
The subject I have been asked to write about is Reading Novels vs. Reading Comics. This past Christmas we gave my mom, among other things, a very old copy of Dr. Spock’s famous Baby and Child Care book. My brother was thumbing through it, reading passages which elicited laughter because of the dated viewpoint. In one chapter Dr. Spock was sternly warning parents against the negative effects of children reading comic books. They were the gateway to juvenile delinquency. While that attitude seems quaint and misguided today, there is arguably a hold-over sentiment in many circles when it comes to judging the merits of the comic book medium. Listen to me kids, don’t listen to the snobs. The literati, those who drink tea with their pinky finger in the air and insist on Grey Poupon*, do not know what they are talking about. Comic books are da bomb!
Any person can walk into their local comic shop or book chain and pick up a comic that is garbage, a funny book that is the epitome of all the negative things said about comics since the day the first one was printed. But you and I know that the same can be said about novels. For every gem there are hundreds of plain, ordinary rocks. “Okay, so maybe you are right Carl and there are comics that are worth reading, but why should I read comics when I have a towering pile of novels to read?” Just as well to ask why read at all…because in comics, like in novels, there are stories that can have a profound effect on you. They may cause you to look at an issue in a way you never have before (Maus). They might ignite a passion for classic folklore and mythology (Sandman). They may inspire you to track down copies of classic literature that you had always meant to read but never got around to (The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen). They might teach you about the ups and downs of true love (True Story Swear to God). Comics have the potential of doing all the things that a novel can do, only in a slightly different way.
They use pictures.
The saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” may seem trite, but its truth is born out in the very best that the world of comics has to offer. We are a visual species. Images sell us products, inspire us to action, shape our outlook, and teach us different ways to look at ourselves and the world in which we live. Advertisers have tapped into the power of images for decades. Comic books tap into that same vein, using the one-two punch of visual imagery and the written world to tell you a story. Comics are not just limited to the realm of the spandex superhero, although there have been many stellar stories told in the superhero realm in the past. Series like Fables dig deep into the folklore of nations while putting a modern spin on familiar faces. Shaun Tan’s The Arrival wordlessly tells a profound story of what it is like to be an immigrant in another country. Joe Hill’s Locke and Key gives his old man a run for his money in the horror genre. Mike Mignola’s Hellboy series not only tells great stories but also shows how the individual comic panel can be used to add atmosphere to the story and lead your eye across the page. The recently completed mini-series I Kill Giants, by Joe Kelly, deals with serious, heart-tugging subject matter in a story with a kick-ass young protagonist. In each of these and many more examples, skilled storytelling is combined with eye-catching art to tell a rich, fulfilling story.
I have had comics bring me to tears (Mom’s Cancer), keep me rooted to my seat in page-turning fashion (Watchmen), take me on long, soul-satisfying journeys (Bone), help me better understand the nature of creativity (Kabuki: The Alchemy). Every pleasurable, worthwhile experience that I have had reading novels has been duplicated over the last decade and a half reading comics. And in reading them I have developed wider tastes in art, discovered films and books and other comics that have enriched my reading life, and have had the unique pleasure that only the perfect marriage of art and prose can bring. You are truly cheating yourself out of a rewarding experience if you are not open to reading comics. Reading comics and reading novels, as part of a balanced diet, are what makes for a healthy, happy reading life.
*no offense to pinky lifters and poupon eaters who are not literary snobs.
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Carl Vincent: He is a man of taste, a man with high aesthetics and a man of many books [the ones he have read anyway]. I am not good at these introductions [should not forget to ask for bios], so just go to Stainless Steel Droppings and be amazed with style.
I love epic fantasy, always have. After my father read me Tolkien as a young boy, bought me Stephen Lawhead for Christmas, and took me to the library to peruse the bookshelves, I have always been drawn to the stories that contain secondary worlds full of magic, myth and legend.
But I like comics too, and sadly, it has always been rather hard to find epic fantasy comics. Most comics tended to be of the superhero variety in the vein of Spiderman, Superman, Batman, and X-Men. Even the comics that are built on mythology such as Wonder Woman or Thor, have most of their storylines set in the present day.
But though it has been difficult to find epic fantasy comics, it is not impossible. Here are a few I have found:
ADAPTATIONS
One of the easiest places to find epic fantasy comics is to find adaptations of epic fantasy novels. Raymond E. Feist’s Riftwar Series, Orson Scott Card’s Tales of Alvin Maker, George R. R. Martin’s short stories of The Hedge Knight set in his NYT bestselling A Song of Ice and Fire series, Robert Silverberg’s The Seventh Shrine and Robert Jordan’s New Spring and Wheel of Time were all adapted by the Dabel Brothers, beginning in 2001. After Dabel announced its partnership with Marvel in 2006, more and more of the books of these authors have been adapted are fairly easy to find at most major bookstores. Dabel has also produced an adaptation of the novel The Highwayman by R. A. Salvatore in partnership with Del Rey.
Devil’s Due Publishing has also produced a comic adaptation of R. A. Salvatore’s DemonWars Saga and has worked with Wizards of the Coast to produce Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance adaptations featuring some of the most famous characters from those shared worlds from the Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game.
Robert E. Howard, the father of sword and sorcery has been almost continuously adapted. Conan the Barbarian become a comic in 1970 with Marvel, but since 2003 has been produced by Dark Horse Publishing. Howard’s character Kull the Conqueror is also a comic produced by Dark Horse. Dark Horse also recently release new comic adaptations of Michael Moorcock’s sword and sorcery tales of Elric one of the most well-liked anti-heroes ever.
DC Comics has also been creating adaptations. Their World of Warcraft series of comic books are some of the most popular on the market today.
The adaptation has always been my favorite method of finding epic fantasy comics. It is quick, it is easy, and you are pretty much going to know whether you will like the book or not.
ORIGINAL WORKS
But adaptations are not new stories. More than likely, you may have already read the book, and so will be dissatisfied that you are not getting something original. If that is the case, here are some other places you might look.
Red Sonja was a character created by Robert E. Howard for his Conan stories. I chose to include her in this section because Howard only used her as an incidental character, but Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith took that character, remade her, and gave Sonja her own comic aptly title Red Sonja, the She-Devil with a Sword. She is still makes regular appearances in the Conan stories. Red Sonja is published by Dynamite Entertainment.
Sojourn was a comic series by the now defunct CrossGen. It told the story of a blond-haired, longbow wielding beauty seeking justice for her murdered family and was written by Ian Edgington and drawn by Ron Marz. Sadly, CrossGen went out of business before the story was complete. Checker Book Publishing Group released the previously unreleased comics in trade paperback form, but even their releases did not finish the story. I still hole out hopes that eventually we might see the end of this story, but I don’t recommend buying it just yet.
The Warlord is a sword and sorcery comic book that began in 1975 that has maintained a continuous publication from DC Comics since its creation by Mike Grell. This particular fantasy comic is great because the publisher has worked hard to continue the pulp look of the original artwork into onto the present day, and the comic is easily recognizable. Also significant is the fact that this comic can still be found in most comic book shops, unlike many other epic fantasy type comic books.
DC also produces Elfquest which began in 1978 and is still being written. Though there were many storylines and characters, ElfQuest began with telling the story of Cutter, his tribe the Wolfriders, and their quest to find and unite other groups of elves against the threat of humans, trolls, and other assorted nasties. Elfquest is pure epic fantasy, and is highly enjoyable for its excellent art and intriguing storylines. All of the comics through 2008 can be read for free at ElfQuest.com.
Artesia, written and illustrated by Mark Smylie and published by Archaia Entertainment, is the beginning of an epic fantasy story, The Book of Dooms, following one woman on a journey of war and magic. Artesia left her home in the Middle Kingdoms after her mother was burned at the stake as a witch, and she has found refuge in the Highlands of Daradja and remade herself as a concubine, a priestess, a warrior and war captain. She now walks a dangerous path surrounded by jealous overlords, enemy witch-hunters, invading armies, dread gods, the ghosts of the dead, and ancient evils out of myth and legend. I have not seen this book in print, but I’ve heard it is enjoyable.
Archaia Entertainment is not a one-hit wonder or vanity press. They also produce the New York Times bestselling Mouse Guard, a comic by David Peterson that is an original story similar to Brian Jacques or Watership Down. In Mouse Guard, mice struggle to live safely and prosper among all of the world's harsh conditions and predators. Thus the Mouse Guard was formed. They are not simply soldiers that fight off intruders; rather, they are guides for commonmice looking to journey without confrontation from one hidden mouse village to another. The comics are titled by season and date so readers move through time at the same speed as the characters. It is both a clever and unusual comic book series that has even spawned its own role-playing game. Mouse Guard is sold widely and is very easy to find at bookstores and online.
Devashard is an Asian based brand new epic fantasy comic being produced by Fluid Comics. DevaShard chronicles the life of a radiant son robbed of his birthright and plunged into a land gripped by darkness. In this vivid world of magical beasts, mighty gods and cursed daemons the hero must look deep within himself to find the strength he desperately needs if he is to survive the evil threatening to extinguish him. I’ve never read this series, but it looks interesting, and you can download a free preview at their website.
ON-LINE
And of course, readers always have the option to go online to find fantasy webcomics. There are lots our there, some good some bad. You can browse some at Fantasy Adventure Webcomics site. Goblins is one of the most popular webcomics on the internet and has an epic fantasy theme. Wayfarer’s Moon is another popular epic fantasy webcomic with excellent artwork. Epic Fail is an oft visited satiric epic fantasy written by Amy Letts. TVTropes.org has a list of fantasy webcomics that have achieved some notability that includes many epic fantasy comics. The page has short descriptions of the comics that make it easy to find comics suited to your taste.
CONCLUSION
Ultimately, though it takes some work, it is possible to find epic fantasy comics both in print and online. Since superhero comics dominate the comic book shops, Barnes and Nobles and Borders, you may be forced online at Amazon or direct from the publisher to buy the comics, but you can find them. Hopefully this post has given you a few places to start looking.
John Ottinger’s reviews, interviews and articles have appeared in Publisher’s Weekly, Fantasy Magazine, The Fix, Sacramento Book Review, Strange Horizons, Thaumatrope, and at Tor.com. He is a columnist for the Hugo Award winning Electric Velocipede and is the proprietor of the premier SF&F review blog Grasping for the Wind.
Mention comic books in a conversation and most people will probably automatically think of superheroes such as Batman, Spider-Man, Iron Man, the X-Men, Superman, or the Incredible Hulk just to name a few. And who could blame them? Comic books rose to popularity because of superheroes, have maintained their popularity for over half a century thanks to Marvel and DC Comics—two of the world’s largest comic book publishers, both of which specialize in superheroes—and are more popular than ever because of comic book movies with The Dark Knight and the three Spider-Man films representing four of the top 30 worldwide grossing movies of all time, and all released in the past decade. Heck, the reason I fell in love with comic books—and have continued reading comic books for over the past twenty years—was mainly because of superheroes. So I understand how easy it is to pigeonhole comic books as superhero fare.
But there’s much more to comic books than just superheroes. Fantasy, science fiction, horror, comedy, romance, Westerns, mystery, noir, licensed properties (Star Wars, G.I. Joe, Transformers, etc), comic books for adults, comic books for children, comic books for teenagers . . . no matter how rich or diverse your tastes may be, there’s something out there for everyone, and that’s not even counting the comic books produced by other countries like Japan’s incredibly popular manga-styled comics. Of course, before the whole comic book movie boom, it wasn’t quite as easy to find comic books that didn’t feature superheroes in them. For me, I never read a comic book outside of Marvel or DC until 1992 with the launch of Image Comics (Spawn, Shadowhawk, WildC.A.T.s, Youngblood). Even then, the comics produced by Image were just a different kind of superhero, but they planted a seed in me, and over the years my tastes have continued to blossom thanks to companies like Vertigo (Sandman, Preacher, Y: The Last Man, Transmetropolitan, Hellblazer), Dark Horse (Sin City, Hellboy, Conan), Wildstorm (Astro City, Danger Girl, Gen 13), Top Cow (Witchblade, The Darkness, Fathom), IDW Publishing (30 Days of Night), the now defunct CrossGen, Avatar Press (Freakangels, Gravel), Aspen Comics (Soulfire), Dabel Brothers (GRRM’s The Hedge Knight, Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time), Virgin Comics (John Woo’s Seven Brothers)—now known as Liquid Comics—Radical (City of Dust, Hercules, Hotwire), and many others.
Nowadays, I rarely read superhero comics at all. In fact, if you were to enter my house you would see a collection dominated by such titles as The Sandman, Preacher, Locke & Key, Transmetropolitan, The Sword, Y: The Last Man, Stephen King’s The Dark Tower and The Stand, Sleeper, Elephantmen, George R. R. Martin’s The Hedge Knight, The Umbrella Academy, et cetera. Naturally, my change in tastes has a lot do with my own evolving interests, but there’s more to it than that and the biggest reason is that comic books in general have evolved. Just look at what’s happened in the world of comics over the past few years: Marvel was acquired by Disney for $4 Billion; Warner Bros. creates DC Entertainment; comic books go digital through iTunes, Sony’s PlayStation®Portable (PSP) and Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited; major book publishers—Del Rey Manga, Hachette Book Group’s Yen Press, Tor’s Seven Seas—are producing their own comic books and graphic novels; movie directors (John Woo, Guy Ritchie, Jonathan Mostow), actors/actresses (Nicolas Cage, Hugh Jackman, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Rosario Dawson, Tyrese Gibson, Seth Green), screenwriters/producers (David S. Goyer, Marc Guggenheim, Damon Lindenlof), rock stars (My Chemical Romance’s Gerard Way, Rob Zombie, Gene Simmons) and bestselling authors (Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Joe Hill, Orson Scott Card, Laurell K. Hamilton) are writing and creating their own comic books while comic book writers and artists (Frank Miller, Brian K. Vaughn, Mark Millar, Alex Ross, Tim Sales, Grant Morrison, Geoff Johns, Joe Madureira) are contributing to film, television and gaming; all this and I haven’t even mentioned the countless comic book-adapted films and television shows that have been released or are currently in development.
So what does it all mean? Well, to be blunt, it means that comic books are relevant now. Sure, we comic book fans have had our moments over the years like when Watchmen was awarded the Hugo Award in 1988 or when “The Death of Superman” event was covered by national and international news, but for the most part comic books were never taken very seriously. Now? Now, comic books are used to promote the hottest movies, video games and television shows; can be read using the latest technology; and are attracting the biggest names in entertainment while making household names out of comic book creators. Heck, comic books are even being used to adapt classic literature (Dynamite Entertainment’s The Complete Dracula and The Complete Alice In Wonderland) and spotlight celebrities like the recently announced line of Fame “biographical comics” featuring such personalities as Lady Gaga, 50 Cent and Taylor Swift. In short, comic books are mainstream now and I for one could not be happier J
You see, in addition to reading speculative fiction and comic books, I also love to watch movies and television, listen to music, and play video games, all while trying to keep up with the latest technology. So I love the fact that Hollywood, comic book publishers, video game companies, book publishers, and digital media are all trying to work together. Is it a perfect marriage? No. Take for instance the way companies exploit brand names to push inferior products, or the fact that some people outside of the comic book biz just should not work with comic books and vice versa. But as a whole, I believe the positives far outweigh the negatives. For one, I think it’s incredibly cool when a favorite comic book character of mine, book, graphic novel or cartoon is adapted into a different format, be it film, television, animation, video games, comic books, or prose. I also love the idea of my favorite authors, screenplay writers, artists or comic book writers contributing their talents to a medium outside their area of expertise. I also think it’s smart for a franchise, both popular and newly established ones—Star Wars, Batman, Final Fantasy, Transformers, CSI, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Halo, Metal Gear Solid, God of War, Mass Effect, inFamous, Dante’s Inferno—to use different mediums to expand their mythology and fanbases. After all, some ideas just work better in a certain format. Plus, it’s a great way to get people who may only play video games, watch DVDs or browse the Internet, interested in a different form of entertainment like reading novels or comic books, and so on. Then there’s the whole diversity factor, with different mediums—comic books in particular—offering a wider selection of products than ever before.
The big question about all of this is: will it last? To be honest, I don’t have a clue. On the one hand, Hollywood, comic book publishers, video game companies, book publishers, and digital media could end up developing a synergistic relationship that will be successful for decades to come. Or, it could all fall apart. Personally, I’m rooting for the former, but we’ll just have to wait and see what happens. For now, I’m just going to sit back and enjoy the ride. After all, regardless of where your tastes may lie—movies, television, comic books, video games, prose, gagdets, et cetera—we’re entering a whole new age of entertainment, and I have a feeling that things are going to get interesting...
...actually, the difference between writing comics and novels isn't so much "fight" as "watch them run away from each other at top speed".
I went into writing novels without any noticeable research in how to do it, aside from having read tens of thousands of them over the years. Comics were a much more deliberate process for me: I had a very clear idea that I didn't know how to do it, so I set forth to find out how other people did.
Good thing I did, too, because they're completely different animals. And on one hand, the differences are obvious--scripts vs. prose, frames vs. chapters, 22 pages vs 400 (that's sort of a big one), collaboration vs. individual work--but those obvious differences don't fully address some of the things I found most striking.
As a novelist, everything happens on the page. In comics, all the action is *off* the page, between the frames: you're catching a frozen moment. There can't be both an action and a reaction in the same image; it doesn't work. That's a huge thing for a novelist to adapt to.
Moreover, in novels, chapters and scenes are as long as you want them to be. In comics, a scene is very often just two pages, because turning the page creates a new space and a new scene in a way that white space or chapter breaks do in books. So the pacing for a comic has to be *extremely* deliberate and very tight. Obviously scenes can, and do, go on for longer than two pages--but as a writer, you're still usually looking at a page turn for your scene break...and when you only have 22 pages (the standard for a modern comic) you want to be extremely careful with your storytelling. Interestingly, the scripting process for comics led me to a habit that's become increasingly helpful for novels. Television and film use something called a "beatsheet", which are just brief, sentence-long descriptions of the most relevant "beats", or scenes, in a show. I adapted that for comics writing, using a beat for *every* scene, in order to more thoroughly control the story structure. It's turned out that a novel-sized beatsheet is exceedingly useful to me, too--less formal than an outline, but more or less of the same nature, it's helped a great deal in moving past sticking points in novels.
So while the two formats are wildly different, it turns out studying one can really prove to be helpful with the other. It's worth the effort, and I'm more than happy to have had the comics experience I've now got. With any luck, I'll do more in the future, and learn even more clever things to bring from one medium to the other!
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Who: C.E Murphy. I wanted to have C.E. Murphy on my blog for quite some time and back, when her comic book series Take a Chance was announced, I wanted to conduct and interview and get a picture of what’s it like to go from novels to comics. Due to deadline clusters however that was a no-go, until now, when C.E. Murphy [author of the Walker Papers, the Negotiator Trilogy, the Inheritor's Cycle] reveals what’s the difference between writing novels and comic books.
Harry has been kind enough to let me ramble on again on his blog and join in with the Comic Book Appreciation Month. My reading has contained a small proportion of comics and graphic novels over the years, much more poorly represented on my shelves than they are in my affection. That affection goes back to borrowing old X-Men comics from a friend at school and to The Crow which came out towards the end of my school years (which dates me I guess).
Anyway I have been asked to consider the two elements of comics, art vs. story. As a result I have been thinking about what draws me most to a comic or graphic novel. I'd like to say story. I'd like to say that the plot and characters are important to me in the same way they are in a novel. To some extent that's true. I kill giants (Joe Kelly) has a brilliant, moving story which drew me in and made me cry at one point. Back at school of the borrowed X-men comics the more unusual plot lines (Psylocke and Revanche) were the ones that really absorbed me. Gaiman's Sandman comics are typical of his superb story telling in any medium and James O'Barr's The Crow is as gripping a story of revenge as any I’ve read in a novel. So it's story then that makes a comic stand out for me, makes it stay in my memory and brings me back to it for endless re reading and I have read The Crow many, many times. Without a decent story it’s a moments diversion. At one point I read some of the Chaos comics (stop sniggering) and plot was never their strength really. They were light and fun and silly and mostly death and mayhem but plot and character never struck me as the strong focus. They were a fun diversion and I retain affection for them but they sit gathering dust and are unlikely to ever be reread. The tricky part of a story for comics is that you don't have anything like the number of words to play with. I've recently ordered a graphic novel with no text at all. At time of writing this it still hasn't arrived, so I can't tell you whether it works. I can tell you that for me at least, without a decent story behind it what you have is a bunch of pretty pictures.
As for artwork. I suppose the important thing about artwork to me is that it's right for the story. The artwork tells you whether this is a dark and gothic tale or frivolous and fun. Styles change with new techniques and are by necessity affected by fashions and trends. I remember clearly when Jet Set Radio (game) came out, being blown away by cell shading which I had never really seen before. So it must be with comics, you don't really see people drawing in the style of old Spiderman comics any more; everything is slicker, sharper, cleaner. As for me, well yes, I’m shallow, I like pretty things, I struggled with Watchmen because the art didn't work for me. I love the spikey black and white of both Sandman and The Crow. I loved that I kill Giants managed to be both playful and plangent, which was so perfect for the story. I was drawn to The Untamed by it’s dark strong colours and it’s sense of despair and brutality. I want to feel the world I am being drawn into before I start to read. I don’t think any single thing about the art can be more important than it being evocative of the mood of the comic. It tells you where you are and prepares the mood after all comics don't really allow for long descriptions of mood and set. If you take the words out of the comic completely the art should still be able to carry you through the story so with the wrong artwork the story vanishes and no caption can ever put it right.
Fundamentally, whether in each case it’s to your taste or not, for a comic to work the art and plot must support and compliment each other. If they are at odds then the reader will be pulled in different directions so perhaps the real skill is getting the right combination and balance. It's a symbiotic relationship, a comic with no real story is a picture book, a story without the right artwork will get lost. So what are some of your favourite examples of art and story and what matters most to you?
Hi folks, yhe lovely Harry has given me the keys to TLR today so i've come to play. I wanted to talk about audiobooks.
I recently heard Stephen Fry, when asked how he lost so much weight, attributing it to audiobooks. He bores easily and just walking wasn't doing it, but add an audio book and he'd happily walk all day. My husband has trouble sleeping so plays audiobooks at night, quietly on his side of the bed so if he wakes up he doesn't get into the cycle of over thinking and worrying that plagues him otherwise. My parents sometimes have audiobooks in the car, I got them a Bill Bryson one year that they woldn't have read but thoroughly enjoyed listening too.
I never really did the audiobook thing. I didn't get it, I like music for driving and walking and I sleep ok most of the time thanks. Recently though I discovered I really rather like them .
Some of them anyway. There is one really important thing for an audiobook to get right and that is the reader. Some authors, Stephen Fry, Neil Gaiman, have wonderful voices for reading and can bring a delightful new dimension to their own work, adding the inflections as they intended them. It's a delightful, being read a bed time story feel and something I now find deeply comforting.
Fry of course has also read many other people's books too, which is all good and well because really, you may have gathered I could listen to him read the dictionary and be content; him, Gaiman and Anthony Head. Most people don't read their own books, being a writer and knowing the work best doesn't always make you the ideal person to read it, although of course I don't like some of the professional readers either. It must be horribly disapointing for an author to have an audiobook out with a reader they don't feel does it justice, or has the wrong sort of voice for the tone of the book. My biggest problem with them right now though, is when to listen. My other half obviously has his sorted, but as I said before, the natural times for mine are occupied by music, if I walk I am usually on my way to work rather than simply walking so music works better. Maybe I should take more baths and listen then, or garden more and put them on my ipod, actually, the garden fence needs painting so I think this weekend I shall get some of the books onto my pod, including the last two disks of The Graveyard Book (read by Gaiman and utterly wonderful to listen to).
So how about you? Do you or don't you audiobook? When do you listen and what do you think makes a good audiobook? Thanks for letting me visit. Hagelrat.
Yes, Kanye interrupted yet another important event, but to be honest he had every night, because we have the MEGA AWESOME hostesses of all Ana & Thea yawning and waving off the much celebrated Emmy Awards and host their own awards as a way to appear even cooler.
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So...we watched the Emmys last Sunday. And as usual, the same shows took the same awards (30 Rock, Mad Men, etc, yawn, etc). We've had enough of it! In the spirit of awesome host Neil Patrick Harris as Doctor Horrible, we are taking over the Emmys...and assigning our own winners! It's the Smugglies, baby!
Best Series, Drama
EMMY NOMINEES:
'Big Love'
'Breaking Bad'
'Damages'
'Dexter'
'House'
'Lost'
'Mad Men'
(Emmy Winner: Mad Men)
Smugglies Winner: LOST
Ok, so we're not totally unhappy with this win from MAD MEN. But we would have been equally happy with a win from DEXTER or LOST. And what's with some of these nominees? Does anyone actually KNOW anyone that watches BREAKING BAD? How is f***ing BATTLESTAR GALACTICA not on this list!??!?! (For the record, BSG would have been Thea's best drama winner) Or how about FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS?
Best Series, Comedy
EMMY NOMINEES:
'30 Rock'
'Entourage'
'Family Guy'
'Flight Of The Conchords'
'How I Met Your Mother'
'The Office'
'Weeds'
(Emmy Winner: 30 Rock)
Smugglies Winner: The Office
Seriously, 30 ROCK again?!?! Yes, it's funny. Yes, we love Tina Fey. But is it better than the awkward humor of THE OFFICE? Does it have anything on the smart progression and growth of THE OFFICE??? No freaking way. And why isn't IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA on this list? Yeah, it's a show about horrible people, but it's freaking hilarious, decidedly un-PC, and just wonderful all around.
Best Actor, Drama
EMMY NOMINEES:
Bryan Cranston - 'Breaking Bad'
Michael C. Hall - 'Dexter'
Hugh Laurie - 'House'
Gabriel Byrne - 'In Treatment'
Jon Hamm - 'Mad Men'
Simon Baker - 'The Mentalist'
(Emmy Winner: Bryan Cranston - 'Breaking Bad')
Smugglies Winner: Michael C. Hall - 'Dexter'
Again with BREAKING BAD. Come on. If you're gonna go with the damn Emmy staples, at least give it to Hugh Laurie or Jon Hamm again. What the fuck is weird eyebrows dude Simon Baker doing on this list in the first place!? Way to sneak that one in there, CBS.
Best Actress, Drama
EMMY NOMINEES:
Sally Field - 'Brothers & Sisters'
Glenn Close - 'Damages'
Mariska Hargitay - 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'
Holly Hunter - 'Saving Grace'
Kyra Sedgwick - 'The Closer'
Elisabeth Moss - 'Mad Men'
(Emmy Winner: Glenn Close - 'Damages')
Smugglies Winner: Mary McDonell - 'Battlestar Galactica'
Ok, yeah Glenn Close is awesome. I mean, she's freaking Glenn Close! But we dare anyone to tell us that Mary McDonnell doesn't deserve this award. As President Roslin, Mary McDonnell was a hard ass like Glen Close's character on Damages, but with such vulnerability and subtlety too. It's a crime that she's never been nominated for her work on BSG.
At least Anna Paquin didn't make the list. THEN we would have been gouging our eyes out.
Best Supporting Actor, Drama Series
EMMY NOMINEES:
William Shatner - 'Boston Legal'
Christian Clemenson - 'Boston Legal'
Aaron Paul - 'Breaking Bad'
Michael Emerson - 'Lost'
John Slattery - 'Mad Men'
William Hurt - 'Damages'
(Emmy Winner: Michael Emerson - 'Lost')
Smugglies Winner: Michael Emerson - 'LOST'
We really cannot argue more with the academy's choice for best supporting actor. Michael Emerson is creepy and terrifying and vulnerable and made of pure acting awesomeness. We love the bug eyed bastard. (Although what's with the two BOSTON LEGAL nominees??? Is that show still on?? Yeesh. How about getting Josh Holloway a look here? No? Or James Callis for Gaius Baltar? Or Alessandro Juliani for his heartbreaking portrayal of Gaeta this final season?)
Best Supporting Actress, Drama Series
EMMY NOMINEES:
Rose Byrne - 'Damages'
Hope Davis - 'In Treatment'
Chandra Wilson - 'Grey's Anatomy'
Sandra Oh - 'Grey's Anatomy'
Dianne Wiest - 'In Treatment'
Cherry Jones - '24'
(Emmy Winner: Cherry Jones - '24')
Smugglies Winner: Rose Byrne - 'Damages'
Rose is the real heart of DAMAGES, and we're kinda shocked she didn't take home the award. If Diane Wiest won it, that's one thing, but Cherry Jones for 24??? Really? We also would have loved to see Elizabeth Mitchell for her work on LOST in this category, or how about Tricia Helfer or Grace Park for their work on BSG?
Best Actor, Comedy
EMMY NOMINEES:
Alec Baldwin - '30 Rock'
Tony Shalhoub - 'Monk'
Jim Parsons - 'The Big Bang Theory'
Steve Carell - 'The Office'
Charlie Sheen - 'Two And A Half Men'
Jemaine Clement - 'Flight Of The Conchords'
(Emmy Winner: Alec Baldwin - '30 Rock')
Smugglies Winner: Steve Carell - 'The Office'
Steve Carell proved once again this past season on THE OFFICE that he's not only a comedic genius, but he can act his face off. Remember the picnic finale? His reactions and emotions to seeing Holly again? If you remain unconvinced of Steve Carell's acting ability, go give Dan in Real Life a watch. Then come back and talk to us. Also, love Jemaine Clement in FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS. That show is sidesplittingly funny in such a quirky way. Creative, and awesome.
Best Actress, Comedy
EMMY NOMINEES:
Tina Fey - '30 Rock'
Christina Applegate - 'Samantha Who?'
Julia Louis-Dreyfus - 'The New Adventures Of Old Christine'
Sarah Silverman - 'The Sarah Silverman Program'
Mary-Louise Parker - 'Weeds'
Toni Collette - 'United States Of Tara'
(Emmy Winner: Toni Collette - 'United States of Tara')
Smugglies Winner: Toni Collette - 'United States of Tara'
Because...she's really funny and an awesome actress, and we feel like this list is padded with some not really funny nominees.
Best Supporting Actor, Comedy Series
EMMY NOMINEES:
Kevin Dillon - 'Entourage'
Tracy Morgan - '30 Rock'
Neil Patrick Harris - 'How I Met Your Mother'
Rainn Wilson - 'The Office'
Jon Cryer - 'Two And A Half Men'
Jack McBrayer - '30 Rock'
(Emmy Winner: Jon Cryer - 'Two and a Half Men')
Smugglies Winner: Rex Lee - 'Entourage'
Come on, he's LLOYD!!! Who doesn't love Lloyd? I wouldn't find ENTOURAGE half as entertaining if it wasn't for Lloyd. Also, Rainn Wilson and Tracy Morgan definitely deserve these nods. Great jobs, both of them.
Smugglies WInner: Amy Poehler - 'Saturday Night Live'
Amy Poehler is fucking funny. Not like "Hi I'm Tina Fey and I'm witty and intelligent but not very funny on my own," but like, "Hi I'm Amy Poehler and I'm about to make you piss your pants."
Best Guest Actor In A Drama Series
EMMY NOMINEES:
Edward Asner - 'CSI: NY'
Ted Danson - 'Damages'
Jimmy Smits - 'Dexter'
Ernest Borgnine - 'ER'
Michael J. Fox - 'Rescue Me'
(Emmy Winner: Michael J. Fox - 'Rescue Me')
Smugglies Winner: Jimmy Smits - 'Dexter'
Pure, unfiltered brilliance. That's what Jimmy Smits was this season as Miguel Prado on DEXTER. Brilliance, baby.
So that’s how we feel about this year’s Emmy awards. What about you? Agree ? disagree?
Foreword: Among the contributors I have asked to help out with my blog, while I tend to my secret projects, I have urban fantasy and paranormal romance author Marcia Colette, an expert on all matters dreary and creepy as well as a dear friend of mine to take up the spotlight and do her thing. While we are the subject at how awesome Marcia is, she just had a book launch. "Stripped" is her third novel published by Samhain and also on my list of books to review. So I will go back to lurking in the darkness and leave you Marcia and her new obsession.
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Lately, I’ve been on a serious vampire kick. From movies to books to even researching the vampire subculture that exists. What is it about this genre that makes a lot of us paranormal folks gravitate toward it?
For me, it’s the mystique. Let’s face it. We’re attracted to curiosities and that’s pretty much what a vampire is or any supernatural creature for that matter. We want to know what makes them tick. What’s it like to be one? How would you live if you were turned into one? All of these questions and more are turning around in a brain and they ignite inquisitiveness fires.
Not all vampire stories or lore have provoked these questions. For instance, I’ve seen the movie Let the Right One In because so many people had raved about how good it was. Perhaps. But like everything else it’s a matter of opinion. I didn’t like it so much. Since it’s a Norwegian film—I think—I’m guessing that something got lost in the translation. Don’t get me wrong. It had its moments. However, it fell flat for me because there wasn’t enough excitement to draw me in.
On the other hand, I just started reading Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead and I’m damning myself for not having picked up this series sooner. It didn’t suck me in with the first page because I found it a little confusing, but it built to the point where if anyone had snatched the book out of my hands, they would’ve found themselves bleeding from the jugular. I love love love this book. Who would’ve thought that high school could be that interesting? The vampire angle is weaved within the story so well that if you were to take it out it would fall apart and be a sad mess.
One thing I’ve discovered during my vampire kick is the lore and world building drives the story forward. However, it’s not the only thing. A good writer can weave such an incredible story around vampires that reused things like sensitivity to sunlight, allergies to silver and crosses, and sucking blood won’t matter.
My love for vampires has been reenergized. Whether that means I’ll be writing a vampire story remains to be seen because I love my shapeshifters. But that’s all I’m saying about that right now. At this point, the only thing I have on my vampire agenda is to bring it back to adult works because I’ve been reading a lot of YA Vampire books lately. If you have any suggestions, I’d love to hear them. I’ve already read most of the heavy hitters like Anne Rice, Charlaine Harris, and Laurell K. Hamilton. The same goes for some of the new blood to the genre like Jenna Black, Jeanine Frost, and Jennifer Armintrout, and Jeri Smith-Ready—what’s up with the J’s. *grin*
And if you know of any vampire movies that are coming out, please feel free to share those too.
Foreword: I have amazing blogger and friend Carl Vincent over from "Stainless Steel Droppings" to take the spotlight for one day and speak about whatever he pleases. This is the result and I hope that you are as thrilled as I am.
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Where has all the mystery gone?
As October approaches here in these United States, my thoughts, and my short story reading habits, turn to H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, M.R. James and the like. By today’s horror standards the yarns crafted by these gentlemen might seem trite, old-fashioned, even downright quaint. For some these stories do not deliver the terror of more contemporary horror masters like Clive Barker or Stephen King. These stories, because of the time that has passed since they first captured the imagination of readers, have a sense of nostalgia to them that admittedly does not light a fire in some readers.
For others, however, these stories burn—they burn with the flame of something captured then that seems much more elusive today: the undiscovered country. Bear with me here, I do have a point even if it does seem a might blurry at the moment. I first ‘discovered’ H.P. Lovecraft two years ago. For all of my adult life up until then I had been a fan of Poe, but had always thought Lovecraft’s work to be, primarily because of unsettling book cover art, far off the beaten path of what I liked in regards to the horror genre. I had a “thanks, but no thanks” attitude towards the man’s work. As hackneyed as it may sound, it really only took that first story to plant the seeds of devotion. What was it about the stories of H.P. Lovecraft in particular that cut right to the heart of me? Sure, he was a talented and prolific author, but it wasn’t just that. It didn’t take me long to realize what it was: H.P. Lovecraft, and other story tellers around that same time period, wrote with a perspective that simply cannot be easily duplicated today. There was still mystery in the world.
In today’s technologically advanced, “there is an explanation for everything” world, we often look back at the late 1800’s and early 1900’s with a far more romanticized view of the way the world was. Though the world certainly was not that simple, and while there was certainly a great deal of marvelous advancement, there was still so much potential for an H.P. Lovecraft setting. Ancient cursed Egyptian ruins, damned bloodlines, books of forbidden knowledge, old gods kept at bay by the very thinnest of protective veils, tombs and caves which, once entered, insured that the adventurer would never be heard from again. One has to believe at the time these were written that many a person partaking of one of Lovecraft’s tales experienced the very exquisite kind of terror that comes from reading something that one feels just might have a slight possibility of being true. What child, or grown up with a childlike heart, doesn’t secretly wish there were ancient, possibly haunted ruins one might come across while wandering through the woods, or caves leading downward to the lair of some ancient evil, or dark tomes of untold knowledge to be found hidden in some great ancestor’s attic library? It is the ability of the author to write a story that allows me to travel back to that time in my imagination and see the story from the protagonist’s eyes that endears authors like H.P. Lovecraft to me. They speak to that spirit of adventure and the unknown that seems hard to come by in this age of advancement.
Of course my lamentations are a little melodramatic. Certainly there are a great deal of unexplained mysteries out there, places that have yet to be discovered. One can hope anyway. But does it feel the same way it would have felt back in the early 1900’s reading Lovecraft’s work? I’m not sure it does. Please feel free to put this down as the addled thoughts of a man intoxicated on cool autumn breezes. You would not be far off in that assessment. However, I have been fascinated with this line of thinking ever since I first read H.P. Lovecraft and this wonderful opportunity to guest post on Harry’s site seemed to me the ideal place to begin to more fully form this idea. I would like to hear from you. What are your thoughts? Are there contemporary authors who are capturing that same sense of the unexplored? Has the increase in knowledge taken away our ability to be superstitious, to tremble at the unexplained, to believe in ghosts? Will stories like those of Poe and Lovecraft continue to haunt readers over the next 100 years as they have over the past? And does it matter if they do not?
Thank you so much Harry for the opportunity. I appreciate you trusting me with your blog for the day! It is a real honor.
Howdy, dear Temple Library Review’s readers! Ana and Thea from The Book Smugglers here, taking care of Harry’s place whilst he is otherwise occupied. We thought about what we were going to talk about here on this here post and decided to go with something that is always at the back of our minds:
The amount of books on our TBR piles.
Just yesterday we saying to each other that really we should be named The Book Lunatics instead of The Book Smugglers because honestly, it is just not possible to read all the books we have. We both read a lot – 3,4,5 books per week, each!, and we spend most of our waking hours reading, and still we have not make so much as a dent in our giant TBR piles (we fondly refer to them collectively as “The Blob” - for The Blob, because like the movie monster, our TBRs have a nasty habit of consuming any available space and growing uncontrollably). Possibly, this lack of dent-making is because we keep buying and receiving books when we should just say no, but alas, we have learnt that there are things one simply can not fight.
Having said that, the worst thing about The Blob is that there are books there that keeping calling to us, books that we want and need to read and still we have can’t find the time! It is MOST aggravating. It is also a reason to be ashamed. So, borrowing the idea from Aidan from A Dribble of Ink, we decided to list our Pile of Shame: those books that we KNOW we should read, that we OWN and still, we have yet to pick them up.
For example: Joe Abercrombie’s First Law Trilogy. Everybody and their mothers (and uncles and cousins and second cousins) have read these books – expect for us and we both have The Blade Itself in The Blob. Shame on us!
Or, say, Roger Zelazny’s Amber series which is a classic that Ana really wants to read and what the hell is keeping her from doing just so? Shame!
Or Naomi Novik's Temaire series that everyone raves on and on and on about? Again, both of us have His Majesty's Dragon, but we have not found the time to read it.
Or even Patrick Rothfuss's The Name of the Wind! Thea has had this book since basically it first came out. We were supposed to do a joint review for it, but Ana decided to go rogue and read it on her own (leaving Thea incredibly pissed off and hung out to dry). SHAME!
What about when Graeme from Graeme’s Fantasy Book Reviews invited us to read and review The Briar King by Greg Reyes and we did we loved it, bought book 2 and then…. Did not read it? Shame on us!
The one good thing is that there is a light at the tunnel, and if we have anything to say for ourselves is that we will persevere .We recently tackled Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn Trilogy, for example. Ana also read The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (to which Thea is still aggrieved) and Thea just read Ariel by Steve Boyett.
So yes, there is still hope for us. What about you? Which books do you have in your Pile o' Shame?
Foreword: As you might have noticed the steering wheel has been taken from my hands and pretty soon posts will pile up from so many different directions your head will spin. However I super grateful for the small vacation and work on some super secret projects. Anyway today I have an author buddy of mine Todd Newton, whose novel "The Ninth Avatar" I reviewed a while back. He received my commentary very professionally though I certainly baked during my delivery of the review, so I invited him to speak about criticism.
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Being a writer requires thick skin. This doesn’t mean you should ignore criticism, merely that you should filter it. Weigh it, and its sources. Used properly, criticism can actually improve your work. Used improperly, it can prematurely end your career (at least in your own mind).
Writers, by our very nature, are insecure people. It’s practically in our DNA. As such, our calling is both a blessing and a curse. We are encouraged to create, to push boundaries and explore where others dare not tread. At the same time our enterprise is not a private one; our work is meant to be viewed by others.
With viewing inevitably comes criticism. Criticism is nothing new but, when it comes to writing, it can feel like the word has been redefined specifically to make your life miserable. Writing is personal, whether it is a poem, magazine article, or novel. It is an expression of the author and, as such, any perceived attack on the writing could be construed as an attack on its creator. Funny how this doesn’t necessarily work the same when the work is praised, but praise is not criticism.
Critics have a license to be harsh—that’s their job. Your job, as the author, is to accept it. Not necessarily to feel obligated to believe or act on it, but in no universe is it acceptable to argue with it. Protesting criticism makes you look petulant, immature, and unprofessional—no matter how scathing the original remarks were.
I frequently see two types of criticism: malignant and constructive. The former is the negative kind, the “this story sucks” kind, while the latter is more like “this would have worked better had we been told why Character A wanted to kill Character B.” There is no proven method to ensure you only receive the second kind; therefore you must confront both.
The way to deal with criticism is confidence. Not arrogance, mind you, but a sense of self that words can’t destroy. It is perfectly acceptable to be imperfect in someone else’s eyes. Subsequently, it is more than acceptable for your work to be viewed as imperfect.
Our initial drafts, by their very definition, are supposed to be imperfect. The misconception is that our final drafts have sloughed off all possible mistakes and can now blind us with their shininess. Critics exist to reintroduce us to reality, specifically the realities that everything can be improved and that everyone has different tastes.
The way to react to these things is not by assuming failure, but to accept a person’s opinion for what it is (and what it is not). Numerous blockbusting films have had plot problems, not to mention bad writing and acting. Bestselling books have been blasted by critics and fans, alike, but continue to sell. At the end of the day, what ultimately matters is that you completed the work. No critic can take that away, no matter how famous they are.
Do they have their influence? Sure. So do sales figures, and neither is necessarily indicative of the quality of the work—or of the work’s creator. Use your criticism as fuel, to improve your work or try harder next time, and succeed.
Our darling, wonderful host here has allowed me to cross post my first ever Con experience fromUn:Bound. So here it is:
Sadly I could only escape from married life for the daytime today, not the whole weekend, maybe next year? If nothing else next year it's going in my diary early and I am staying late.
I arrived about 9:45 while things were still pretty quiet, wandered around the dealers room and the art gallery. I'd been instructed by the lovely Steve Savile to give the incredibly talented Daniele Serra a hug, isntead I bought a book of his art work and then lurked outside the artists panel till it finished to ambush him. I did eventually get to pass on the hug, but introduced myself first. (to our left, Daniele in front of some of his incredible canvases)
I talked to various people in the dealers room and then went to a panel myself "Dead good, or just Dead" about the popularity of vamps in fiction. It covered largely the teen and romance elements, which is fair enough because frankly, that's where the market is at the moment. Panelists were Raven Dane,Steven Erikson, Adam Nevill , Sam Stone & Dave Howe from Telos. It was an interesting panel and there was some good discussion about how a countries climate can inform it's vampire myths.
After that I got to hang our with Mark Charan Newton, Tim Lebbon , Darren Turpin and Mark Chadbourn, just sitting around chatting. Seriously, I was in fangirl heaven! Everyone was soo nice and approachable and really open to chatting to a random blogger. It does feel very much like an industry event, with relatively few fans and bloggers who are not writers or in publishing, but it's small and freindly and i'd seriously recommend it, because unlike the big fan conventions authors at FantasyCon aren't being mobbed by 600 rabid fans so they are all relaxed and happy and willing to give you some time.
for lunch I joined some of the East Midlands Lit Network folks (who you will be hearing a lot more about on Un:Bound in the future) & Steve Tribe. It was lovely to slip away to a tiny cafe in Notts an dhang out and chat in the sunshine, and it was glorius sunshine.
(right, Tim Lebbon & Mark Newton looking serious and writerly)
After lunch I picked up a copy of The Mammoth book of Best New Horror and joined for queue to get Vincent Chong (Mihai, he's lovely and I mentioned i'd seen your interview) and some of the featured authors to sign it, including Ramsey Campbell (squeee, Ramsey Campbell knows my name, squee! My cool, it has abandoned me) and Christopher Fowler, who I had to snap on my phone for gloating rights with the friend who sent me one of his books in the first place. I also managed to push a bookmark on each and every one of them. mwhahahahha. That way when I stalk them online to demand interview they will at least have seen the name before. I also got an ontro to Mark Yon of SFFWorld which was great, talking to a more experienced and established blogger about our little corner of the webiverse.
Anyway about 4:30 I sloped off into Notts to meet a badly neglected old friend for coffee and head home before my husband forgets what I look like, we've not really seen each other much this week. Apologies to all the people who helped me settle in just to have me slink off without even saying goodbye and especially to Danny Serra, I did look but couldn't see you and needed to head off. Ah but folks, what an awesomely brilliant day, some of you have to come with me next year!
( A slightly dark pic of Chris Fowler)
Ok and the swag, because I know you are dying to know. Wel.l because I joined the British Fantasy Society I get a couple fo free books, but because I paid by paypal and it's arsing around, they will follow on. Otherwise, there was a copy of Tom Lloyd's "Stormcaller" in the really cute canvas goody bag an dsome Hitchikers postcards I can't wait to use. I bought, "Different Skins" by Gary McMahon, Best New Horror anthology, "Illusions" by Daniele Serra, A nice boxed hardback of "Beyond each Blue Horizon" by Andrew Hook and "And god created zombies" by Andrew Hook (it was a good deal, I couldn't resist) I also grabbed any business cards, bookmarks and flyers I could, while leaving a trail of my own bookmarks behind me. Oh, and because I am a reviewer I got a copy of "Geas" by Jonathan Webb in return for promises of a review. Because it's my first Con and I am completely selfish, I am keeping it all mwahahahah. Well I might pass one or two books to other Un:Bound reviewers but I got my name signed on most of them.
It’s the end of the year? Already? Nah, that can’t be true… *checks calendar* Crap! You are most definitely right on target with this one. What the heck was I doing this year? Did the feline overlords conquer Earth, yet? *listens to the invisible man whispering something in my ear* Oh, that is scheduled for 2012. Death by kittehs. Mwa-ha-ha.
