Timewaster's Guide Archive

Interesting stuff, definitely is a long process.

Let me know if you do decide to come to Chicago.  After having to sit out both Worldcon and World Fantasy this year, I've decided I'm going to Worldcon next year.  World Fantasy has more on the business end, but I don't feel like going to Toronto.

Just finished Deadline, the second book in Mira Grants's Zombie Trilogy.  There will be spoilers for those who haven't read the first book, but I'll refrain from referencing anything from the second book.  Who starts a series with the second book anyway?

Deadline begins where Feed left off.  We're now in the head of Shaun Mason, Georgia's brother.  I was critical of the character development (or lack thereof) in her last novel.  This novel has character development, but it's external.  Essentially Shaun hears his sister's voice talking to him because he can't deal with reality.  That he was the one who killed her.  This changes his character signficantly, but it's a change that occurred off the pages, in between books.  For the remainder of this book his character will remain essentially the same.

The plot was even better than Feed.  Grant does a good job of providing realistic explanations for the virology behind the zombie virus that's been raging on the planet for over two decades.  I think that's one of the best things about this series, Grant takes it seriously and so the reader must too.  There's a whole new host of characters with their own little quirks, but most of them are just scenery. 

Deadline was a quick, fun read.  It's definitely a page turner.  The issues I have with this book are similar to the last.  There really is no attempt at character development.  Grant has an annoying habit of constantly having Shaun think about punching anyone who reacts to him speaking aloud to the girl in his head.  In the beginning of the book that was fine, but after 500 pages we don't need to hear it again.  The plot is interesting, but again as a mystery novel it leaves much to be desired.  A ton of information is withheld from the reader so it's impossible to know where the book is headed.  That's alright, but I think the book would've been better if she allowed us a clearer picture and developed the suspense more.  As it is, some of the plot movements seem contrived and make little sense.  I will say that I saw the epilogue scene coming a mile away and it should make the next book interesting.

I'm not sure how she's going to wrap everything up in one more book because there's a lot left unexplained.  Both her books clock in just over 600 pages so maybe the third will be larger.  Or maybe she'll extend it past a trilogy.  I know that my reviews have been cricital of Grant, but that's the writer in me.  I'll still read them because sometimes it's alright to read a page turning thriller and let your brain go on autopilot.  And Grant's writing is good.  It's very entertaining.  But this isn't something I'll be thinking of after I close the book and it isn't a series that I'll be dying to reread over and over again.  In this case, what you see is what you get.

Finished Jim Butcher's Ghost Story yesterday.  Haha, the same day it came out.  Did I like it?  :-)

I'll try to keep this spoiler free, but anyone reading the series knows that Harry Dresden was killed at the end of the last book and this book deals with his ghost.  I was a little leery of this plotline because it could come off as cheap.  By this point Dresden is a powerhouse of a wizard and stripping him of his power seemed too easy.  I shouldn't have worried, Butcher handles it well.  While Dresden's power is signficantly diminished and changed in many ways, he's not completely helpless.  Dresden must return to the world of the living to solve his murder or three people he loves will die.  What really sold this book was Dresden's internal realizations.  Instead of being able to go in guns blazing he is forced to think through his actions.  This leads him to realize the consequences of his actions from the last novel.  Good stuff that is well written.  Butcher's plot twists are always good and this one is no different.  True, withholding information from the reader can be cheap, but when the main character is in the dark too it feels genuine.  I'm jealous of his twists.  The only complaint I had was at one point the writing is very confusing due to the characters in the scene (you'll know when you get there).  Minor, but slightly annoying.  All in all, a very good read.

The only bad news?  It's not the longest book in the world and it's a fast read so you'll finish it and be left waiting another year for the next book.  I have to admit, I wish he'd abandon his Codex Alera series and just write Dresden books.  Paranormal fantasy is not my thing, but with Butcher and Dresden, I'll make an exception.

Just finished GRRM's Dance.  For those of you worried about spoilers, the only spoilers I'll post will concern some of the POVs in the book.  GRRM has already said who was (and was not) in the book, but if you'd rather not know don't read any further.  To those that don't want to know anything, but are on the fence about picking it up I would say it's definitely worth your time.  GRRM at his best.


So, years of waiting for this one, was it worth it?  Yes...and no.  I'll explain further on.  A lot of our friends are back but the book mainly focuses on Tyrion, Jon, one of the Greyjoys, and Daenerys.  For those of you who are Arya fans, she makes a brief appearance (one of my favorite plot lines of the series).  The prologue seemed unneccessary to me.  I can sort of see why he included it, but it didn't do the job of a prologue IMO which is to either pull the reader into the maelstrom or else dangle something interesting before their eyes.  Honestly, the first three or four chapters were average and I was worried that GRRM might be losing it.  I shouldn't have worried.  After that I was sucked in and the prose was back to his usual excellence.  There is one plot development that happened in the first quarter of the book that felt like it came out of left field.  I was bothered by it, but decided to hold my ire until I'd finished the book.  By the end the wrinkle was given enough time and information to make it less jarring.  Aside from that, the only thing I'll say is that GRRM had me forgetting what he's famous for:  killing or maiming characters we love.  By the end I was cursing myself for ever forgetting.  Enough said.

So, if it was an excellent book why is it worth picking up, but not?  Well, much like Feast felt like half a book, this too feels like half a book.  I'm sure that if he had tried to hold the release of Feast and Dance until both were completed and released them six months apart the fans would have torn him apart.  But the books would be a much better read IMO if all the plot lines were woven together over the course of two books rather than half a story in one and half in the other.  The Meerneese knot?  I don't know.  I could sort of see a few parts where the going must have been difficult.  I can't comment as I wasn't over GRRM's shoulder for the past five years.  Was it writer's block?  An impossible situation? Laziness/loss of enthusiasm?  We'll never know, but ultimately, the man delivered.  You can't ask for more than that.

The last thing I'll mention is that the number of viewpoints has increased.  With two books left, I'm not sure how he's going to bring this to a satisfying conclusion and still fulfill all the promises he's made to the reader.  Then again, a lot can happen over the course of 2000 pages.  I'm rooting for him.  I really enjoyed this book.  It made me remember why GRRM is considered one of the best modern fantasy writers.  I am keeping my fingers crossed that the next book is only a couple years away.

So if you're on the fence, I reccomend picking it up.  If you haven't read Feast in a long time I'd suggest reading that and moving right into Dance.  I think you'll find it enjoyable and it should satisfy your appetite...for a little while at least.  At the end of the day it IS a great story beautifully written and deserves to be read.

@Akoebel,
  I read your blog today.  Just wanted to say that I thought you raised a number of interesting points regarding self publishing.  I'm still generally against that myself, but there are a lot of arguments in favor of it.  I think the biggest negative is audience.  Who reads self published authors on a consistent basis?  Have there been breakouts?  Yes, but very few and far between.  I guess it's the marketing that is a deal breaker for me.  If there were a way to reach an audience I think it would have the potential to crash large publishers...unfortunately, the reading community seems as averse to change as the writing one is so I'm not sure if that's on the horizon or not.

It's been a long time since I've updated this thread.  I've put it off because for a little while the only update I had was bittersweet.  Now I've got some good news to relate, so it will take the edge off so to speak.  Before I get into my current state of trying to break into the publishing industry, I want to apologize for not giving more feedback on the Reading Excuses forum.  Alot of people gave me solid feedback for weeks on end.  I tried to keep up whilst working on my latest project but between a new job, planning a wedding, writing, revising, etc...  Basically life got in the way.  I want to extend an invitation to those that were there for me (Akoebel, Hubay, Asmodean, etc.).  If you'd like me to look at an entire novel via email I would definitely be willing to do that.  I feel that I owe you guys something, if for nothing more than making me feel like what I was doing was worth something.  And that something is starting to pay dividends.  So, standing offer, whenever/if ever, let me know 

My last novel was Written in Blood.  I only sent it out to 8 agents.  It received three partial requests and two fulls.  One of the partials turned into a full as well.  Unfortunately, they all passed.  The first few were back when it was 140k and included flashbacks.  The last was after I removed the flashbacks and wove them in, trimming it back to 125k.  The book was much better for those revisions.  The last agent to request a partial and then full was the best of the lot IMO.  She didn't know me at all, but based off of my query she asked for the partial and after that the full.  That gave me a lot of confidence as my previous submissions came after cons.  Unfortunately, she too passedon it in April.  The project wasn't quite right for her.  She did say that both her and the president of her agency thought I had a lot of talent and she asked me to think of her in the future if I wrote anything else.  Definitely bittersweet.  She said I had talent which was good.  She asked to see future work which proved she wasn't just being nice.  But she still didn't want me.

I was at a crossroads at this point.  I'd been shopping Written in Blood around since October and while I had garnered interest from some of the bigger wigs of fantasy, I still hadn't gotten representation.  Written in Blood is epic fantasy and from what i've seen the published authors in that field are either huge or nobodies.  The agents repping them are fewer than one might think.  A lot of agents put fantasy as a genre they're interested in on their websites, but when you look at the authors/titles they sell, most are not epic fantasy.  I still had another half dozen names to hit up.

But I had been toying with a modern YA sci-fi thriller.  Also, I'm a fast writer.  I think I'm talented (but don't we all?).  My ultimate goal is to publish an adult and a YA book in fantasy/sci-fi/steampunk every year.  I'd never written a YA and the challenge appealed to me.  So after receiving the last rejection in April I began work on the YA book.  I wanted to have it finished by the first week of June but as I alluded to life got in the way.  Nonetheless, I was able to finish it the last week of June and get revisions done by the first week of July.  A month late, but still not terrible.  At 95,000 words it's the shortest novel I've written, but in the ballpark for YA. 

Now comes the good news.  I've begun submitting this week.  And already I've received a request for a partial.  The nice thing about YA is that there are a lot more agents out there that rep it.  The caveat for me is that they also have to be willing to represent adult fantasy as that's my first love and I doubt I'll ever tire of it.  I have another dozen or so agents to send this out to.  Once those are out I'm going to send Written in Blood out to the 6 other agents I never got around to.  You might wonder why I waited.  I wouldn't advise anyone else to do that, but for me, when I'm invested in a project it takes all of my attention.  I couldn't try to query WiB and write another novel at the same time.  Now that they're both done, I can get them out there.

I'll be updating my Twitter feed and this thread (much more occassionally than Twitter).  So if you're interested, feel free to follow along.  Just started Twitter, but every Tuesday I'll post a tip of the day that will include something that helped me personally improve my writing.  I'm sure some of it will be old news to those of us that write a lot, but it always bares repeating.  Fridays I'll post book reviews, helpful links, etc.  Otherwise I'll be using it to track my progress.  Who knows, this book might go the way of Written in Blood, but I feel like I"m getting closer and that's all you can hope for.  Get a little closer each time until you finally cross the finish line.  Writing's a marathon, not a sprint.

So there you have it.  I apologize for the long, long post.  But I felt a lot of you deserved an explanation for my extended absence.  If any of you guys are currently submitting or recently did so and have some war stories to share I'd love to hear it. Good luck to everyone else out there, we're all in this together! 

Hey Peter,
  I was just wondering if book sellers could request ARC for The Alloy for Law?  I'm good friends with mylocal bookstore owner.  I know she was able to get an ARC for Way of Kings and after reading it she ordered copies for her store.  Full disclosure, I was able to read it too :-)  I also bought a hardcover copy from her.  I do that for authors I really like as it supports small bookstores, the author, and the fantasy genre in general.  Besides with Way of Kings you HAVE to buy the hardcover.  The artwork that goes with the story is simply amazing.  Thanks in advance for the information.