Title: Dog with a Bone / Heir to the Dog Author: Hailey Edwards Publication date: 2014/2015
My Grade: C
My Review:
I read these two swiftly together so its hard to really seperate them into two reviews, thus, I am doing a single review for both books.
Dog with a Bone is the first book in a series of four, and is a novella. I get the sense it was written last because the original intent was it to be a trilogy (the other 3 books) but she wanted to set things up and wrote this.
The action is good. The characterization not so much. I’m going to continue reading and hope that the main character Thierry (And thank goodness in the second one they actually sound that out because I couldn’t figure out how to pronounce that) gets some depth. The most developed character in the book series so far is Rook, and he’s not even the main character.
Basically its not a horrible book, I’ve read worse and I don’t have much to complain about except that there is too much of the action and not enough of the heart that makes us care about what is going on. But this is a series, so I will continue on.
This story also contains a lot of mythological/fantasy characters that I’m unfamiliar with and wish I understood better. Perhaps that hinders my enjoyment of the series.
Title: The Bette Davis Club Author: Jane Lotter Publication date: 2015
My Grade: B
My Review:
This is a story about Margo. It starts off with Margo at her niece’s wedding when the bride takes off and Margo’s sister hires her to chase after her niece. She is accompanied by the groom, Tully, and the two end up going on a road trip across the US in pursuit, driving an 1955 sports car.
I actually enjoyed this book. It plays around with cliches, and Margo’s almost always wrong in her assumptions. She runs into a few interesting characters. She also spends most of the ride reevaluating what she knows about her past, although the ‘flashback’ chapters come later then one would expect, and don’t tend to go into quite enough detail.
There are a few romances in the story, although the main one seems to happen without any lead up. There are period mentions of how cute the guy is, but that is it till the end of the book. Georgia’s story is confused as well.
Its a good read for a lazy afternoon, though.
There is a bittersweet element to this story. Ms. Lotter was a professonal writer, writing columns in Seattle Newspapers but this is her one and only novel, which was self-published shortly before her death. After she died, her family was contacted by a publishing house which published the version I read. The daughter wrote a forward to the book.
This week has two major NASA tragedies, so I thought I would write a post about them. Space Flight history as been an interest of mine since I was in elementary school. Its always seemed strange that all the major disasters that become national news (because there were some that never were big stories) happened during the last weeks of January into the first weeks of February.
Its also a reminder that despite the fact that seems almost common place now to go into space and investigate and come back, it really is a dangerous job, and things can go wrong without any warning.
Challenger Accident – January 28, 1986
Mission Patch for 51-L Challenger. Source: Wikipedia/Public Domain
Today is the 30th Anniversary of the Challenger Accident.
I can’t say I ‘remember’ the incident. I was only a few weeks old, so obviously I don’t. However when Apollo 13 came out and I became interested in space travel and its history I felt connected to this one since it happened so close to when I was born.
On January 28, 1986 Challenger took off from Florida carrying on board seven crew members. It had been a cold morning in Florida and the rapid heat up apparently broke one of the seal rings on the ship. Halfway up, the ship disintegrated and fell into the ocean.
(copied and pasted from Wiki, so those links should lead to Wikipages)
This space flight was notable because Christa McAuliffe was a teacher who had trained to go up as part of a program involving ‘civilian’ crew. It also caused a 2 year shutdown of the space program where NASA reviewed procedures, and components of the ships themselves to make sure they were all safe to fly in.
The next mission to go to space was the STS-26, Discovery in September 1988.
The Apollo 1 Mission Patch (Source Wikipedia, Public Domain)
Apollo 1 was to be the first manned mission for the Apollo class spacecraft. It would be this class that would see us reach the moon. However, on January 27, 1967 the ship burst into flames claiming the lives of three men during a routine pre-launch test.
Two of the men killed were veteran Astronauts. Gus Grissom and Ed White (known for taking the first space walk). The third member was a rookie astronaut named Roger Chaffee.
This accident led to a major investigation, and quite a few changes to the Apollo space craft. One major chance was that the oxygen that had been pumped into the command capsule was no longer pure oxygen, but a mix closer to what we breathe normally on earth. Pure Oxygen is extremely flammable.
Changes were also made to the capsule to improve safety measures. The investigation and changes took a year and a half to complete. The first manned mission afterwards was Apollo 7 in October of 1968. Undamaged parts of the rocket were used in unmanned missions testing the other parts of the ship during the 20 months the command module was out of duty.
The launch pad they were to launch from was only used once more for Apollo 7, then dismantled and is now a memorial site to the lost crewmen.
Title: Lyon’s Pride (book 4 of 5 of the Talent & the Hive series. Book 7 if you include the Pegasus prequels as part of the same group) Author: Anne McCaffrey Publication date: 1995
My Grade: B+
My Review:
As many of you might already know, Anne McCaffrey’s The Talent & The Hive series is what gave me a love of Sci-fi/Fantasy. Its the reason I got into Star Trek, Star Gate and probably even why I gave Star Wars a chance.
My mother had bought earlier books and had them in a box that I stumbled upon. My first book was Damia, (although I later read The Rowan), and I made my way down the line, picking up the novels I didn’t already have.
This is the fourth book of the series, and continues the story of Damia’s oldest three children as they continue to deal with the Hiver situation. Laria, Damia’s oldest Daughter is Prime (leading telepath/telekinetic) on Clarf, the alien homeworld of the MrDini. Thian and Rojer are helping the joint naval organization of Humans & Mrdini track and and observe the Hivers, a group of insectoid beings who think of nothing but colonizing, destroying all other life forms in their path.
Given that this is part of a series, its hard to review without having alot to explain. Its very much a book of transition before the series finale, 2000’s The Tower & The Hive. We see the three main characters develop into adults. Rojer, the youngest at 16 at the start of the novel (perhaps 17-18 at the end of it), has the biggest emotional journey to go on as he is threatened by a MrDini Captain beat on annihilation of the Hivers. Laria deals with the complications that come with running an important Tower, including learning when to find better coworkers. Thian adjusts and settles more into his talents, leading his brother and several cousins in exploration of the Hiver Quadrant of the galaxy.
While Rojer has the most impactful story in this one, there is alot of information about the Hivers, who have been the antagonists since book one.
I recommend this book to anyone, mostly because its one of my favorites. I do however recommend you at least start with Damia, which is book 2. The actual first book is the Rowan, but some of the story is recovered in book 2 by Afra.
I’m going to try another 15 minute unprepared for sprint. Lets we what I can come up with. My friend suggested that I write about King Carl, which is actually an joke between a group of us, and doesn’t probably make as much amusing sense to anyone else.
Thus, a 15 minute story about King Carl. Be warned, its complete nonsense and that is because I wanted it to be.
Once you are finished writing your story, there are still a few steps. This bit has the most crossovers when it comes to fandom vs. Professional writing. So here’s a couple last minute steps before you go to post your work
There are different names for different kinds of fics. Some transfer over to original work, but some are unique to Fanficion. Some kinds are fandom-dependent. So now that you know what you want to write, its time to figure how to describe what you wrote to potential readers. Continue reading “Fandom Writing Starter Kit: Production”→
The work that goes into writing fanfiction is not often different from the work that goes into making original short stories and longer novels. The main difference is that fanfiction has material and a world it is already based on. Professional fanfiction is an actual thing. The hundreds of Jane Austen continuations and adaptations alone could prove that. As mentioned in an earlier section, the Aeneid is basically fanfiction of Homer. But I don’t anyone would tell Virgil that he hadn’t put his share of work into that story.
There are different things people do before writing a story. Some people have a scene or story so clear in their minds that they sit down and write the whole thing in one go. Others need planning, and some need research to develop its unique elements. The ‘pre-production’ stage of writing may include some of the following:
The Plot Bunny
The Plot bunny is not exclusive to fanfiction, though that is where I hear it most. Its that spark of a story that is stuck in your head that you want to develop or get written down. The what if voice.
I was once part of a college writing club and one of the members decided to draw a plot bunny once. It was a drunk plot bunny because sometimes it seems like that idea is a little drunk at first, especially when its only pieces and you aren’t sure how to figure it out quite yet.
I actually have a file on my computer just for the random ideas, both fanfiction and original fiction, that pass through my brain. Some will never be written. Others will be picked up down the road. Its sometimes useful just to get the general idea written out to clear out your mind and let you focus on the stories you are actively working on.
Sometimes carrying a notebook with you to jot inspiration or notes down helps too.
The Outline
Sometimes an outline is useful. There are many different kinds of outlines out there, and maybe one day I’ll write a whole post just on the different kinds. Some just do bullet points, others do outlines in such detail they could hand those notes over to someone else and let them do the actual writing.
For me it depends on the story. Some stories, particularly short one-shots and 500 words or less drabbles (we will get into that next post) don’t really need an outline. It is helpful if you have a long fic planned and need to meet certain elements along the way to the conclusion.
Outlines can also be helpful if you need to do research
Find out what is best for you.
Finding a writing nook
Well, that is a little misleading. What I mean by this is finding a spot (or spots) where you can write comfortably. Everyone needs different things. I like to write with music, so I go find places to settle down where I can play my music.
Some people need fresh pencils, others need their laptop. Find out what works for you. If you are uncomfortable its not going to be a good writing session.
Once you find a spot, and know what you are writing, then its time to get writing.
You may have noticed amongyour travels of the fanfiction archives out there that many stories had disclaimers. Sites that fanfiction only tend not to have them as its generally known that the site is a collection of trans-formative works. But its important to know what a disclaimer is and why you should use one, especially if you are posting a site that is not purposely for Fanfic
A disclaimer is a message where the writer reminds whoever is reading of several things. One is that it is done for enjoyment, not profit (fanfiction is primarily a volunteer/non-paid hobby). Two that the writer is giving credit when credit is due. Three, That the writer respects other writers enough to know how to source material.
As I mentioned in my previous article, each fandom has a canon. It depends on the fandom itself what is considered canon. In sports, their canon might be the rules and regulations that the sport runs by. In a fandom such as Star Wars some fans may consider only the films canon, others might include the extensive extended universe tie in novels. Game of Thrones fans might consider their canon either the show or the books, or attempt to meld the two.
There are other choices other then strict canon, such as fanon, semi-canon, Alternate Universe, and of course non-canon.
Sokorra Lewis 