Science Fiction & Fantasy author
This is a big share post. Indie Author Land posted their interview with me about the second book in my Students of Jump series. In Times Passed and No-Time Like the Present are both available at Smashwords.com under all the major formats and Amazon.com as well as other major e-book outlets.
See my interview at Indie Author Land today.
The Cain and Abel narrative is very versatile with lots of opportunities for adjustment: two brothers, two sisters, two siblings, two cousins, two co-workers, two businesses, etc.
The Little Handbook of Narrative Frameworks available on Smashwords and Amazon.
Holt’s The Spirit Child is the first installment of a series of books that twist Native American spirit guides with feudal manors, strong female characters and realms in degrees of spiritual growth and power. The storyline includes the involvement of actual walking, talking, and occasionally sarcastic guides in the form of owls, wolves, panthers, badgers, etc., working to maneuver the few spiritually awake humans to safety and teach them to negotiate an increasingly dangerous world due to a darker group of powerful animal spirits.
That sounds a bit like a mishmash of ideas, but it’s a mix that had it an aroma would be described as delicious. Bree Makena, Duchess of Danforth, is the main character, and she is ripe for change. Heartbroken and determined to be alone and disconnected from society, she is ready to do battle with the first annoying individual she meets, but she is unwilling to watch a girl child be sold into slavery and certainly raped if no one steps in. Makena steps in, and life changes from that moment on. The child turns out to be capable of seeing any spirit guide, not just her own, but she is as flawed and broken as Makena. The two travel more than just the rough territory of the lands they call home (or want to call home) as they deal with the fear and denial which keeps them from recognizing their guides and learning how to become part of society in ways they have yet to find appealing or even safe.
Makena and the child Kaiti have to not only figure out how to belong to each other but also how to belong to their spirit guides who are not in the least bit uncertain about how things should be going if only those stubborn humans would stop fighting their destinies. Other characters also carry the story well, from long time friends, healer Becca and bathhouse owner Maura, to tribal leaders and royal families. There are strong male characters as well and tribal elders who bring depth and meaning to much of the difficulties Makena and Kaiti face. Timur, Makena’s dead husband, as the story progresses, is easy to accept as a person Makena might find impossible to face life without. It is inevitable that one will get attached to several of the individuals Holt breathes into life in her writing as the reader steps smoothly in and out of the thoughts and concerns of a variety of supporting characters as well as the two main characters.
Arriving at the end of this book is a lot like it is in real life: few things are wrapped up in tidy bunches; much is left that needs to play out, and the trouble that was on the horizon is still lurking out there. The difference is Makena has grown out of some of her troubles which is good because there are several more difficulties building up she is going to have to face if she wants to maintain life’s new vision and new hope.
I enjoyed this book and view it as one I will probably reread, especially while I wait for the next book in the series to come out. My main rule is if I anticipate reading a book again, its worth five stars.
Every writer knows that the only way to get that book, story, poem, etc., done is to write. We also know that the only way to improve is to get feedback, honest, no holds barred feedback. I teach creative writing, and I tell my new students every year that I will be considerate but honest. They will know what the strengths were in the piece as much as where growth is occurring and where it is needed. Every writer needs this and for some, like myself, it is hard to come by.
I am a teacher, and since I want my students focusing on what I am teaching them and not on me, I don’t advertise that I am a indie writer. I have told only a couple people in my family and just one friend. I know they’ll keep my writing activities secret. But where does that leave me for feedback: well in a very limited space. I have become friends with several writers, and those connections has been helpful because they know what I mean when I say tell me everything so I can get better. They want honest feedback from me, and I want the same from them. And it has been worth any uncomfortable feeling I might get from seeing the flaws pointed out in what I thought was a pretty thorough job (repeated numerous times)at line and context editing. I grow as a writer each time they supply feedback and each time I give feedback. It would have taken me years of personal distance to be able to give that kind of critique myself. I don’t want to imagine waiting five years to be able to look at my own work with the necessary distance and increased knowledge in editing, drafting, plotting, etc. needed to actually see what needs to be improved. That’s five years of embarrassment of having my work out there that I would get all in one fell swoop that could have been avoided by getting straight feedback from another writer or a professional editor when the work was “finished.”
So sure a writer writes, but a WRITER GETS FEEDBACK is even more important. I published my first book with minimal feedback (those two family members). It wasn’t long before I had a nagging feeling that perhaps I had overlooked aspects of the story or not edited as well as I thought (even an English teacher needs an editor, nobody can look at their own work without bias, certainly not after reading it one hundred times). So I took it off publication, sent it to a writer friend (she sent me hers as well) and we traded feedback. I am still working on it and hope by Christmas to have it back published again.
All this post really is saying is writers need feedback.
I have posted about many of the books I consider useful. So this post is sort of a gathering of those posts in one place. Now you don’t have to search about for them.
Grammar and revision:
Eats, Shoots and Leaves
A Writer’s Reference
Spell Friendly Dictionaries
Creative inspiration:
A Writer’s Book of Days
Lu Chi’s Wen Fu
Lu Chi’s Wen Fu 2
The Worst Case Scenario
Good books to read:
The Catcher in the Rye
Tale of Two Cities
You’ve Got to Read This
I recently started rereading Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye. Even though I know where Holden Caulfield is in his journey of self-deception and punishment, I still get caught up with the slow reveal of his anger. Salinger in the first three sentences tells the reader exactly where Caulfield is and how he has yet to find balance. Still, I find myself walking along beside this struggling character, listening to what he hates in his effort to avoid what he loves. That ongoing chatter the first person narrative provides that begins so truly as teenage angst before it begins its slow, slick slide into, well read and see for yourself.
Every writer should read it for the lesson alone of how to create a character that tells all while he thinks he has hidden all his best secrets, the quintessential unreliable narrator. Every reader over the age of 15 should read this book. It’s makes one grin at first hearing him say all the things every polite individual wishes he could belt out so unconsciously and honestly. Somewhere along the line, the reader comes to a realization: Holden is not chatting at length for every teenager who wishes he could speak his mind so easily, but for his own salvation, his own need to divorce himself from his shortcomings, his desire for forgiveness, presumably from the reader, but in reality from himself. Reader or writer, read it, read it more than once.