REVIEW: "THE LAST DRAGONSLAYER," BY JASPER FFORDE

In the good old days, magic was indispensable—it could both save a kingdom and clear a clogged drain. But now magic is fading: drain cleaner is cheaper than a spell, and magic carpets are used for pizza delivery. Fifteen-year-old foundling Jennifer Strange runs Kazam, an employment agency for magicians—but it’s hard to stay in business when magic is drying up. And then the visions start, predicting the death of the world’s last dragon at the hands of an unnamed Dragonslayer. If the visions are true, everything will change for Kazam—and for Jennifer. Because something is coming. Something known as . . . Big Magic.

I pretty much read everything Patrick Rothfuss (Author of "The Name of the Wind") supports. This book showed up on Pat's Goodreads feed, and thus it was fortold that Dan would pick it up. If you're a fan of this blog, than by all means go check out Pat's blog (http://blog.patrickrothfuss.com) ASAP. You won't regret it; and if you do regret it, then you shouldn't have been a fan of my blog in the first place.

*Mic drop*

Anyway, on to the review:

A lot of folks think whimsy is just for kids. And in a sense, our society has pressured adult literature to become that way. If you want to be noted as a venerable writer, write pain and story sorry. 

I've been trying to read more of said 'adult' literature, but it comes at a price. The price of whimsy and the tax of youth. Reading serious, non-speculative fiction can leave one feeling broken-hearted, helpless, and lonely. With the onset of adult literature comes the feeling (at least for me) of growing old and losing the warm veil of youth. Which is of course the natural progression of life; but that doesn't mean it's fun. 

 Luckily, there is a literary medication for those woes. Youth is a state of mind, a vitality, that can benefit any age group. And in this sense, a bit of youthful whimsy a day can keep the gloomy away. 

Stories like "The Last Dragonslayer" are perfect balms for soothing the emotional stretch-marks of growing up. 

Fast-paced, whimsical, and with a nice underlying message, "The Last Dragonslayer," is perfect if you don't want to think to hard, but you still want quality fantastical world-building. The dialogue is often very witty and Fforde's playful turns-of-phrase will have you cackling out loud. 

And if Hasbro doesn't make Quarkbeast plush dolls, than they're missing out on some serious moolah.

4/5

Next Big YA Book Event

Calling all YA authors!

If you have ever hashtagged #amwriting, #MSWL, or #IWantToBePublishedSoBadlyMyEyeballsMightPop, than pay attention.

From September 17^th through October 1^st, Hipso Media Publishing and Jenny from Supernatural Snark will be hosting the ‘Next Big YA Book Event.’

Why is this good news for #amwriters?

Here’s how the event works. Most publishers work exclusively with agents, which makes it difficult (more like close to impossible) for up-and-coming writers to get their work seen. Well, Hipso Media Publishing will be opening their doors to all YA writers who dream of traditional publication, but can’t seem to catch a break. Writers who have mountainous ideas, along with an actual mountain of rejection letters. Hipso wants to pick one of those writers, and treat them like the literary rock star they are, showering them in every publishing perk someone of their caliber deserves:

-  Publishing contract with a generous royalty program

-  Custom cover from Seedlings Design

-  Candace Book Blog Book Tour

-  Exclusive front-page podcast on AuthorsOnTourLive, iReadBooksRadio and iHeartRadio (which gets an average of more than 1 million hits a year)

-  Novel as an eBook on all major retailers – Kindle, Nook, iBooks, Kobo, around the world

-  A featured post on Supernatural Snark

-  Awesome book swag, and more…

Once the winning manuscript is picked, Jenny from Supernatural Snark (Owner of Seedlings Design) will work with the author to create a custom cover that will be sure to shout, “NEXT BIG YA BOOK”. And then she’ll do a featured post on Supernatural Snark, to make sure the world hears.

No agents, hoops, or hassles. The only criteria are that your YA manuscript be finished, you must believe it’s great, and it must not already be published somewhere else.

Here’s the link to the submissions page and contact info:

http://www.hipsomedia.com/the-next-big-ya-book/

Good luck and happy writing!

--------

SOOOO....

This event is near and dear to my heart for a few reasons. 

A. It was my idea (yup, I just name-dropped like a boss)

B. I'm in charge of pretty much everything

C. I get to work with Jenny from Supernatural Snark

D. I wish I had something like this when I was starting out

My love-affair/ hate-affair/ passion/ test-the-water/ sink-or swim relationship with writing has been interesting to say the least. One thing though, it that writing certainly is hard enough BEFORE the publishing part comes around. 

Because the last thing you want after dripping your life-blood on paper is for the world to reject it. 

Writing for me is like stepping on the gas pedal and the brake pedal at the same time. You have to observe and remove yourself from the world at the same time, and it's enough to make your engine fall out. 

And since mind mechanics aren't cheap, writers should be rewarded. The publishing world is a brutal place filled with rejection and envy and status, and it's enough to make you want to give it up. Hopefully events like these will help keep a few brave souls in the game. 

Cheers :)

SHARK WEEK: PUN ATTACK!!!

-Happy Shark Week, Everyone-

Sometimes Random House does these really funny Tweet challenges where the have a theme and challenge you to have some pun with book titles.

 For example. 

They did #conspiracybooks as the theme and people revised titles to the likes of:

'Goodnight Moonlanding'
'Everything is Illuminati'
'Where The Wild Things Are Secretly Held Until Further Notice'

And so on.

So in honor of SHARK WEEK, I thought #sharklit might be in order. Here's what I've come up with so far.....

#SHARKLIT

'Megalodon Quioxte'


'His Shark Materials'

'The Adventures of Huckleberry Sharkfinn,' by Shark Twain


'Noah's Shark'


'Great White Oleander'


'The Twibite Saga'


'The Old Man and The Deep Blue Sea'


'Mansfield Shark'


'Wuthering Bites'


'Great White Fang'

I've been Tweeting them out from @hipsomedia (where I work) so if you have any #sharklit ideas to add, please comment below or tweet them to me there! 

Review: "Rainey Royal," by Dylan Landis

Expected pub date: 9/9/14

Publisher: Soho Press

Source: BEA

Genre: Lit Fic

Rating: 4.5/5

I was fortunate enough to pick up a signed galley at BEA.

This year's goal is to read outside of my comfort zone. I normally geek out over sci-fi/ fantasy/magical realism/ genre fiction, so starting off my BEA haul with a piece of literary fiction I knew nothing about was a leap. I devoured RAINEY ROYAL in a few sittings and couldn't have been more pleased with my choice.

This book is filled with that sort of complex emotional yearning I often find in the best short stories; but it also has a fulfilling narrative that leads the reader into a powerful relationship with the characters. Rainey, Leah, and Tina are all so fleshed out I felt like the book was 'Pearl Dropping' me through the pages. It surpassed want: I NEEDED to know where the story was gong and how the characters would react. The story was tense and unpredictable. The wordplay was seductive and elusive and every temporal change made perfect sense.

I can't recommend this book enough, although I will certainly try!

ALSO...

Goodreads is having a galley giveaway. Enter here: 

https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/102446-rainey-royal

REVIEW: "THE BOOK OF STRANGE NEW THINGS," by Michel Faber

Expected pub date: 10/28/14

Publisher: Hogarth

Source: BEA 2014

Genre: Literary Sci-Fi

RATING: 5/5

One of the best books I've ever had the pleasure (and anxiety) of reading.

I was lucky enough to come across a galley of this at the BEA. An attractive cover and even more attractive page tips (gold!) caught my attention. The synopsis didn't sound like something I'd normally read, but thanks to my motto this year 'read (live) outside my comfort zone' I dove into this one with open expectations.

The introductory letter written by Molly Stern, SVP and Publisher at Hogarth, mentions in its summation 'emotional complexity'. I know trying capture a 500-page masterpiece in any two-word net is usually tough to do but yes; just yes. Emotional complexity.

Besides a fantastic premise with VERY believable characters (even the Oasans [i.e. aliens]), this novel whips your emotions around with enough human complication to make you dig your nails into the earth both to keep grounded and to check our planet's temperature. In 'The Book Of Strange New Things,' I felt the boiling mayhem of our planet from light-years away. An impressive tour-de-G-Force by Michel Faber.

I try not to talk to much about plot for spoilers sake, so I'll just say that although the story follows an evangelist in space, bringing the word of the Bible to a group of aliens, this book is not particularly religious. Basically, one does not have to be an Christian to find unbelievable meaning from this book. If my last name didn't give it away, I am not Christian; and I promise this book resonated in a big way. This book is about crisis and yearning and faith and the longest-distance relationship ever. It's about freedom and hard choices and... and... ugh, EMOTIONAL COMPLEXITY. Gah, this book squeezed my heart.

Anyway, put this book on your TBR list. I'll put in on my TBRR list (to be reread) and lets all hope this makes the bestseller lists; as I think this novel will hit home (whatever solar system that may be in) with a lot of people. 

THE RETURN

SO...

It's been a while, Why Fiction.

 Why so long, you ask? 

(I must shake off dumb jokes before getting back into the meat of this blog. Bare with me. They'll stop soon*)

((*I hope))

A lot has happened, a lot has not happened, but all in all I'm excited to be back. I'll pepper the upcoming posts with fill-the-time-gap stories, but the main thing that has led me back here were the words 'THE END' on page 572 of a manuscript I didn't think I'd ever finish.

It's entitled 'The Inventor In The Sands' and I am so very proud of how it turned out... but I'll get there another day.

First, feature your eyes on the extremely bald saxophone player in the picture above. Bald saxophone players are obviously cool, you might be saying, but why picture one on a blog about books?

Well I wouldn't have, if I hadn't lost so much darn hair. 

Yes, that stunningly smooth sax-man is your truly. I've spent the last few years focusing on my music career and amazing things gave come out of it. I live in Austin, Texas (the live music capitol of the world) and play out almost every night. 

If y'all (I can say that now since I live in Texas) want to hear a tune I wrote/played on for the band WAKING FABLE, here's a link that'll take y'all to it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECiI7RCab5A

Anyway, this is just me saying 'hey' after a long hiatus. I have a broken ring finger right now so I'll keep this short, but it's good to be back.

 I look forward to tackling the Y's with you once again

COVER REVEAL!

Check it out folks! This is a new book from Spencer Hill Press (my writing family). I'm stoked about this one, because there needs to be more male voices in YA. Yeah, I said it :)

Cover by Lisa Amowitz.

Fourteen-year-old Michael Stevens has never been ordinary; no orphan who hears music coming from rocks considers himself a typical teenager. But life gets a lot more complicated when two-foot-tall, albino, doll-like men sneak into his room one night, transforming the harmless music into a frightening ability he cannot control.

 

Soon, strangers in black suits begin to ask unsettling questions while unnatural animals with mismatched eyes haunt the streets. They are hunting, and not just Michael: anyone he cares about is in danger.

 

With the help of a mysterious drifter, an annoying girl he's accidentally mutated, and one of those creepy doll men, Michael finds himself in the middle of a war that could forever change the world he knows - reconstructing the very definition of humanity.

Title: Awoken

Author: Timothy Miller

Publisher: Spencer Hill Press (www.spencerhillpress.com) 

ISBN: 978-1-937053-53-6

Release Date: August 13, 2013

Formats: Paper, e-book

 
It can be added to your Goodreads TBR list here:http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16064647-awoken

MORE !?!?! Oh, YES. MORE!

Next up I'll be giving away an ARC of "Altered" by Jennifer Rush. This one's been receiving some nice buzz and positive reviews, so I think whoever wins this one will be quite pleased. 

FROM GOODREADS:

When you can’t trust yourself, who can you believe?

Everything about Anna’s life is a secret. Her father works for the Branch at the helm of its latest project: monitoring and administering treatments to the four genetically altered boys in the lab below their farmhouse. There’s Nick, Cas, Trev . . . and Sam, who’s stolen Anna’s heart. When the Branch decides it’s time to take the boys, Sam stages an escape, killing the agents sent to retrieve them.

Anna is torn between following Sam or staying behind in the safety of her everyday life. But her father pushes her to flee, making Sam promise to keep her away from the Branch, at all costs. There’s just one problem. Sam and the boys don’t remember anything before living in the lab—not even their true identities.

Now on the run, Anna soon discovers that she and Sam are connected in more ways than either of them expected. And if they’re both going to survive, they must piece together the clues of their past before the Branch catches up to them and steals it all away

a Rafflecopter giveaway

GOOD LUCK ALL! 

THE PROPHET by MICHAEL KORYTA

THE PROPHET by MICHAEL KORYTA

Title: The Prophet

Author: Michael Koryta

Publisher: Little Brown

Publish Date: 8/7/2012

Genre: Thriller

Source: BEA

Adam Austin hasn't spoken to his brother in years. When they were teenagers, their sister was abducted and murdered, and their devastated family never recovered. Now Adam keeps to himself, scraping by as a bail bondsman, working so close to the town's criminal fringes that he sometimes seems a part of them.

Kent Austin is the beloved coach of the local high school football team, a religious man and hero in the community. After years of near misses, Kent's team has a shot at the state championship, a welcome point of pride in a town that has had its share of hardships.

Just before playoffs begin, the town and the team are thrown into shock when horrifically, impossibly, another teenage girl is found murdered. When details emerge that connect the crime to the Austin brothers, the two are forced to unite to stop a killer-and to confront their buried rage and grief before history repeats itself again.

It's been a while since I've read something without any sort of fantasy trappings or supernatural going-ons, and until reading "The Prophet"I hadn't remembered how much I enjoy curling up with a good thriller. 

This book also reminds me of yet another reason I am so gosh-darn in love with the BEA. When I walked into the BEA I had never heard of "The Prophet" or Michael Koryta, and (just being honest here) I probably never would have purchased it. If I was going to read a thriller I would have asked my father for a recommendation and he would have sent me Dennis Lehane or Lee Child's way. 

I am so glad that I picked this one up, though. The plot itself isn't anything too unheard of: there's a murder, a feuding family, and lessons learned throughout the novel. Sounds kind of standard, right? But Koryta has such a command over his characters that I couldn't help but feel like I knew them. His characters are just so friggin human. They strengths, flaws, mistakes and their motivations of the protagonist brothers are so spot on that one can't help but feel attached to Adam and Kent, cheering when they make good decisions and even cheering when they make a bad decision; because heck, it makes the story all the more realistic. 

I'll most definitely be reading more of Koryta's novels when I'm in the mood to jump back out of the supernatural and  into more realistic fiction (which is funny to me, because realistic isn't a word often associated with thrillers).  

4.2/5

DUST AND DECAY by Jonathan Maberry

DUST AND DECAY by Jonathan Maberry

Title: Dust and Decay

Author: Jonathan Maberry

Publisher: Simon and Shuster

Publish Date: 2011

Genre: YA, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Source: Purchased

Six months have passed since the terrifying battle with Charlie Pink-eye and the Motor City Hammer in the zombie-infested mountains of the Rot & Ruin. It's also six months since Benny Imura and Nix Riley saw something in the air that changed their lives. Now, after months of rigorous training with Benny's zombie-hunter brother Tom, Benny and Nix are ready to leave their home forever and search for a better future. Lilah the Lost Girl and Benny's best friend Lou Chong are going with them. Sounds easy. Sounds wonderful. Except that everything that can go wrong does. Before they can even leave there is a shocking zombie attack in town. But as soon as they step into the Rot & Ruin they are pursued by the living dead, wild animals, insane murderers and the horrors of Gameland -where teenagers are forced to fight for their lives in the zombie pits. Worst of all...could the evil Charlie Pink-eye still be alive?

In the great Rot & Ruin everything wants to kill you. Everything...and not everyone in Benny's small band of travelers will make it out alive

So I came away from "Rot and Ruin" with a sense of awe and curiosity, and while I enjoyed the sequel, I just found it rather safe for a novel about a world infested with flesh-eating monsters.

Maberry still does a fantastic job with getting his world into the reader's head with his swift prose and clear descriptions, but the story was sometimes too clear, if that makes sense. I could see every twist and turn coming (except one) and I just wasn't as enthusiastic about this book. Maybe it was because this was no longer my first book about zombies and the novelty wore off.

Either way, the story still intrigued me, and the action was definitely fierce. The characters were brought further to life (and for the zombies, to death). I will still be reading the next installment in this series, but I probably won't go to three book stores searching for it, like I did for this one.

3.5/5

Rot and Ruin by Jonathan Maberry

Rot and Ruin by Jonathan Maberry

Title: Rot and Ruin
Author: Jonathan Maberry
Publisher: Simon and Shuster
Publish Date: 2010
Genre: YA, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Pages: 458
Source: Purchased

In the zombie-infested, post-apocalyptic America where Benny Imura lives, every teenager must find a job by the time they turn fifteen or get their rations cut in half. Benny doesn’t want to apprentice as a zombie hunter with his boring older brother Tom, but he has no choice. He expects a tedious job whacking zoms for cash—but what he gets is a vocation that will teach him what it means to be human.

Acclaimed horror author Jonathan Maberry makes his young adult debut with this detail-rich depiction of a post-apocalyptic world where humanity has fallen, the dead have risen, and danger is always imminent

So I hate to say it, because I know it's a huge jinx, but I am on such a book hot streak. First the "Mistborn" trilogy from Brandon Sanderson and now this fantastic coming-of-age novel by Jonathan Maberry.

I don't know why, but i've kind of steered clear of the zombie craze as of late. I'm big into magic (and there are so many magic-centered books to go around already) so when it comes time to pick a sci-fi/fantasy book, I usually gravitate to something magical. I rarely read fiction about vampires or werewolves, although I know there are some great ones out there, and until this book I had not read one book about zombies. 

I was hesitant, but I met Mr. Maberry at the BEA and he signed a copy of "Rot and Ruin" for me, so what the hey, right?

It's moments like these that I treasure. Diving into the unexplored (both genre and author) and coming up with a glowing pearl. I really, really liked, "Rot and Ruin". I was prejudiced against zombies because I keep thinking that authors might use them in a way to draw readers in, but might rely only on the inclusion of the creatures, ignoring plot and depth. Maberry does something fantastic. He uses the zombies to examine humanity, and what actual struggles someone might face growing up in a society that had once been overrun by the living dead. 

Character development ain't easy, and Maberry manages to turn protagonist Benny Imura, at first a snotty, lazy punk, into someone honorable and memorable. I don't want to include any spoilers, so I'll just say that if you're like me, and you haven't yet read any zombie fiction yet, this should be your foray into the field of the living dead. And if you like zombies, then you're a shoe-in to like "Rot and Ruin."

I'm not giving it a perfect score because I definitely saw many things coming, but I hope that doesn't deter you. This book was a quite a ride. And just to further emphasize my attachment to this book, I went out RIGHT away and bought the sequel. Which I'm planning on diving into right away, and hopefully continuing my hot streak :)

4.5/5