You Are What You Like to Read: A Book-Selling Savant’s Recs, Pt. 2
Yesterday at Heroes and Heartbreakers, part one of Recommendations from a Book-Selling Savant went online. Just a few minutes ago part two was posted. Drop by and check it out, and if you can, post a comment. As for me, it's now day three of Whatever It Is That Ails Me.
Fresh Meat: Rhyannon Byrd's Rush of Darkness
My newest blogging at Heroes and Heartbreakers just went online (5:00 p.m. eastern time). My sub-title for the piece is Dysfunction junction...come on, gimme a little smile. Drop by and give it a read, then post a comment over there.
I thought I'd share with you why I don't seem to be blogging much these days. It's simple. I'm spending all my time reading and writing, either reviews for PW, or pieces for H&H. I've got another spec piece in draft status, with another just written yet not submitted, and in the last week, in addition to reading and writing about Byrd's book, I read and reviewed two books for the magazine (not including the review I turned in this morning). Never has it felt so good to be under such a time crunch, although having to write ten drafts (yes, you heard right, ten drafts) between last evening and my eleven o'clock deadline this morning for my most recent PW review was not exactly a barrel full of monkeys.
Why were ten drafts necessary for this particular review? Well, the book was nearly 500 pages long and had four sub-plots, three of which melded together. It's part of a long-running series that I've not read in its entirety, with a tremendous number of fans who are as unhappy with review errors as I am. If the facts in a review aren't right, the entire thing—analysis and all—lacks credibility. Because these are short reviews, there's no margin whatsoever for error, and with a book readers are ready to devour, the pressure is more keen than usual.
I write for two PW editors; my mass market editor requires reviews to be no more than 170 words, including page cites. My fiction editor allots up to 300 words (with page cites). This was a review for my mass market editor and the first draft was too long by half. By the time I'd cut it down enough, I'd not only gone through nine more drafts, I'd very nearly rewritten the entire review several times.
For me, the hardest part of self-editing to meet a word count is giving up ownership of my writing. In this review, for instance, I'd written a particularly brilliant sentence fragment. It lasted from draft five through draft nine. Ultimately I cut it because the sentence directly following it subsumed my point. I should have been able to let it go a couple of drafts sooner, but it took further editing to determine how I could cut the fragment and replace it with an entire sentence. Other writers, who are more skilled than I am, no doubt find this easier to do, but even after sixteen years of reviewing, I struggle.
I've got six books to review for PW between now and early May, and I've committed to writing at least two more Fresh Meat pieces for H&H. In addition to the spec pieces I've submitted or finished writing, I plan to write more. And, I'd like to fit in a little reading simply for the pleasure of reading. Not that I'm complaining; I'm glad to be busy and hope everything I write that's published pleases readers and my editors. While you can't update me on my success at PW (I can tell you that I had one review among the 86 published today, but can't be more specific than that), I hope you'll give me feedback on my H&H articles.
In the Dark of Dreams
Marjorie M. Liu
Grade: D
It pains me to write this, but I think Marjorie Liu's Dirk & Steele series jumped the shark with In the Dark of Dreams. Like all the books in this series, I couldn't put it down, but unlike my experience with the earlier installments - which kept me continually turning the page out of excitement - this time I couldn't stop reading because I couldn't figure out what the hell fuck was going on. Liu eventually makes sense of it all near the book's end, but by that time my frustration level was through the roof. Equally as annoying is that Liu chose this book to explain the genesis of The Consortium, and to connect some of the previous stories' loose ends. Long-time readers of the series deserved a better vehicle for this information.
Jenny first encountered Perrin on the beach when both were children and for many years the merman and the woman whose history is littered with pain shared each others dreams. But when he was exiled and forced to go to land, their connection ended...until Jenny, who works as a marine biologist for the legitimate off-shoot of her family's nefarious business, discovered the body of a dead mermaid. The death triggers a chain of events that could have cataclysmic results for humanity. It forces Perrin to seek out Dirk & Steele and links Jenny to him once again.
To say that Perrin suffers from self-loathing puts it mildly; to say that he is reviled by other paranormals who live in the sea is also true, but Liu takes forever to state his case. Until then he comes across simply as a tortured seven-foot albino with startlingly blue eyes who will do anything to protect Jenny and save the world. Which is laudable, of course, but without context his strangeness mostly seems...strange.
As for Jenny, after the death of the mermaid she goes diving and a parasite of some sort attaches itself to the base of her skull. She becomes violently ill, and as the parasite becomes a part of her, she begins to change. For a good half the book I wanted to scream, "Jenny, tell Perrin about the goddamned parasite!!!", but it's only much later that the author reveals why she did not and could not. I've not even hit upon the danger to Jenny by a long-time friend and members of her family, which prompts Perrin to rescue her, but that's because - once more - motives are revealed in such a piece-meal fashion.
The book is filled with action and death, and the interaction with Dirk & Steele agents is limited to the pyrokinetic Eddie and Rik the dolphin shifter, the latter of whom harbors a deep hatred of Perrin. As with most of the important facts that the author fails to divulge early on, we learn quite late how familiar Jenny is with Dirk & Steele, its history, and its members. If it was Liu's intention to keep readers as off balance as her lead characters, she succeeded...but not in a good way.
I realize I'm sounding like a broken record, but Jenny and Perrin's connection only began to make sense to me quite late in the story. Yes, throughout the book references are made to their childhood meeting and their dreams of one another, but I never felt them as a couple until they actively work together to prevent that cataclysm. As for a sexual charge between them, once more Liu delays their coming together. That's not been a problem for me in some of the other books in this series, but because I remained clueless for so long, and because Perrin remains so mysterious, I had no real interest in them as a couple until shortly before the book ended.
What saves the book from total failure is that when all the threads tie together in the last fifth, when it all falls into place and makes sense, the story became the magical read I'd looked for all along. Unfortunately, my frustration level by then was impossible to mitigate. I'll give Liu one more Dirk & Steele book to redeem herself, but unless she writes the book of her life, I'm giving up the series for good.
In the Dark of Dreams won't be released until December; I read an advance copy provided by the publisher.
I used to tell people at conferences that I was like the cobbler's children who had no shoes. Because Blythe received books for review at her home in Colorado and I banned myself from reviewing for most of the years I ran AAR in order to maintain a total disconnect between editorial and sales, I bought just about all my own books, save those I reviewed for PW. Which meant that the biggest perk that goes along with owning a book website just didn't exist for me. Boo hoo.
The Internet exploded during my tenure as AAR's publisher, and included in that explosion were author contests. At AAR authors sent in hundreds of books for our weekly giveaways, but they also gifted books through other websites, and later, their blogs. While I was at AAR, I could not participate in these contests. Boo hoo.
That didn't stop me from occasionally reaping the benefits of website ownership. Jill Barnett gifted Blythe and I an entire signed set each of her backlist, Jillian Hunter sent me two hard-to-find beanie babies, and Kate Douglas included a plush wolf with the book I agreed to review when I had my first blog. Seeking out freebies when I ran AAR was unseemly, so I avoided the temptation except when in attendance at RWA conferences, when I proudly announced my book whoredom.
Now I work at a bookstore, so it's assumed I get lots and lots of free books. Not so, particularly since most of what I read outside of reviewing for PW are ebooks. Occasionally we're allowed to visit the strip pile, but far too much of my salary, even with my employee discount, ends up in the store's cash register. Boo hoo.
So I've embraced my "civilian" status over the past year and a half by entering author contests, and yesterday I won a large package from Marjorie Liu. 
Earlier in the year I won the Australian release (pictured here) for one of the historicals I loved from 2009, Anna Campbell's Captive of Sin, which I'd reviewed very positively for PW. Although I'd already read it and had my review copy, as well as a digital version for my Kindle, the cover art was so gorgeous for the book - and I'm not one who generally cares about covers - that I coveted it - that's right, coveted. And was thrilled when I won.
Earlier this week I noticed a tweet from @marjoriemliu about a contest on her blog celebrating her sixth anniversary as a published author, and being a fangirl for her Dirk & Steele series, entered it. Last evening she emailed to say I was one of two random winners. Here's what I won:
When Liu publicly announced the winners, she also shared that she just signed for three more books. Two are part of her Hunter Kiss series; the third is, at this point, a stand-alone. Though to this point I've only read her Dirk & Steele books, I imiagine I'll soon be trying her other series. Less likely is that I'll become a graphic novel reader, but I've learned to never say never.
