Raven's Shadow - A Review

Ace, 352 pages

I just finished reading this over the weekend, and I have to kick myself for not picking this up sooner.

The basic "blurb" really doesn't do this story justice: " The Raven mage Seraph must protect the world from a terror that threatens to reemerge after generations of imprisonment." Sounds like the usual fantasy trope, eh? It's a lot more than that, IMHO.

Ms. Briggs starts the book with Tier, a soldier, riding back to his home after the end of a war. He's tired, he's sick of killing people; rest and a regular, normal life are beckoning. So he stops at a village to rest for the night - except that there's a pyre in the village square. Tier sidesteps all this and enters the inn for a bit of grub and a bed for the night.

Except he interrupts something inside. A young girl, her chin held high, is being auctioned off to some lord...

That girl is Seraph, who is a mage of a certain order. It's probably not highly inventive that there's an order of mages, and that these mages travel around (call Travellers, naturally) who help stomp out the demons that were unleashed a long time ago.

Trouble is, the Travellers are being killed, or burned, left and right, and there aren't a hell of a lot of them left.

What I like about this book were the characters. They're instantly likable, but human, even the one that can shapeshift (but you'll have to read the book to find out who that is!). For instance, Seraph has a tongue on her, and can be a haughty at times. The story moves along at a brisk pace, but slows down in spots so you can catch your breath; sometimes these breaks go on a little too long, almost info-dumpy at times, but these breaks do come into play later in the story.

The problems in this book are wrapped up at the end (and the characters do grow, especially Seraph), but there is a tendril left loose that I'm sure leads into the second book of this duology.

Worth reading. Now I just need to pick up the second book! ETA: I have! Another one into the huge TBR pile.

~Nancy Beck

Paying For An Agent - Don't Do It!

Consider this the antithesis of the Nike sneakers slogan.

I just went to one of Dee Power's Squidoo lenses (I subscribe to her newsletter, BTW, which is quite good - and free). It's for her latest non-fiction book, How to Get a Book Published. One of the comments to this particular lens was that the commenter couldn't "afford" an agent.

Oh, my.

Fortunately, Ms. Power set this commenter right: Don't ever, ever pay to have someone represent you and your book(s). Look at it this way - if an agent charges you, say, US$100 up front, what incentive do they have to place your book(s) with a legitimate big or small publisher? Hmm?

What's that, you say? They have expenses to pay, like postage, copying, yadda, yadda, yadda.

Agents absorb such things; and if there's excessive copying, let's say, they'll take that out of their 15% commission. Don't ever pay anything up front. If they're asking, you know that means to cross that particular agent off your list.

Is it a perfect system? Of course not. But it's what's out there right now, so we all have to learn to deal with it as best we can.

So how to do that?

Research the agents out there. Check print resources and Internet resources; don't be satisfied with just one or the other. There's a lot of misinformation floating around, so make sure you double and triple check what you've come up with.

Make sure your book fits what the agent represents. Nothing is worse than just emailing queries to any ol' agent about your SF book when she represents women's fiction. Don't think that if you send out enough that something is bound to stick. Be professional about it and make sure your book is in line with what the agent is looking for.

Work from the top down. Okay, so it's not how to build a pyramid (unless you're magically inclined ;-)), but start with the top tier agents. Treat yourself and your ms. with respect. Don't go trawling through the bottom trawlers, figuring you're not worthy of a spectacular agent because it's your first book. Screw that. Just remember that today's bestselling authors were once first timers, too. Everyone has to start somewhere; why should you start anywhere but at the top of the heap.

Query first, and query often. All right, you've got your list of agents, and after doing some more research to see the ones that fit your book's genre, you've whittled down that list a bit more. You've decided that 10 are in the top tier, those that you'd love to be represented by, but you've got more waiting in the wings.

Good. First rule of thumb: Don't send out your complete ms. at first. Why? Agents are inundated with papers and emails and just don't have the time to go through big, gommy mss. They want to see a bit of your writing to see if they're interested. The query letter will be the first thing they see (although you can attach the first two or three pages to the query, if you'd like). This is your sales letter, where you sell your book.

If the agent likes what he sees, he'll probably ask for a partial. This is anywhere from the first 10 to 30 pages of your book. If he further likes what he sees, then he'll for the full. This is where snail mail comes into play.

That's the happy scenario. The unhappy (but one you're going to have to deal with, repeatedly) scenario is that the first agent you send your query to rejects it. She's not rejecting you personally: Remember that. It still hurts, but try to get over it as quickly as you can.

To that end, you need to sent out more than one query. Five or 10 in a batch seems to work for a lot of people. In that way, you're not waiting until you're 110 years old before someone gets back to you. Agents expect that you'll be doing this, so don't be afraid to send out two or three a week (at least!).

Running out of agents? If you've been rejected time after time after time without a request for a partial, it might be time to tweak your query letter. Or you may decide, after doing some digging around and asking questions, that your book is so quirky and offbeat that agents might not want to touch it. If so, you might want to go and seek out legitimate publishers (try the Absolute Write Water Cooler under the Bewares and Background Check forum) where you don't need an agent. Again, do your research ahead of time so you won't be taken in by charlatans like Publish America and the like.

Whatever you decide to do, don't give up hope, don't stop writing. Keep at it. There are many, many stories out there of people who didn't sell their first several novels. Work your craft, get your chapters critiqued by a good online crit board. Persistence will pay off.

~Nancy

Two Book Reviews

Thought I'd just update a couple of things.


DAW, 448 pages

About two weeks ago, I finished reading Karavans; I originally wrote about it in a previous post. I enjoyed it, although it got pretty dark (for me, anyway) at times. And disturbing. Ms. Roberson's style is easy to get used to and easy to follow. I found all the characters in this book to be interesting, especially the Shoias - one is pretty easy going, the other is ornery - and they're cousins ("that's what humans would call it," one of the Shoias says). Nice contrast.

What's also cool about the Shoias is that they can be killed 6 times before it becomes permanent. That ties in with The Teaching Company Cd course I'm taking at the moment on ancient Egypt; the ancient Egyptians were resurrectionists.

A good read, even though it ended in a cliffhanger (which I expected). I went to the local Borders and saw the next in the series on sale last Friday, but it's only in hardback. Sorry, I don't do hardbacks as a general rule, so I'll have to wait on the 2nd book.

* * *


St. Martin's, 368 pages

Didn't I say in a prior post I was addicted to this series? ;-) Anyway, I finished up Eleven On Top a couple of days ago. This one actually took a detour, as Stephanie decides bounty hunting isn't for her anymore; she tries jobs that she thinks are "normal" (whatever that means ;-)). She still manages to get things blown up and is shot at and...well, you get the picture.

Toughie Jersey chick. Yeah. :-)

I'm now reading Twelve Sharp. Since I haven't finished it, all I'll say is that Stephanie's back into bounty hunting as none of the other stuff worked. What's interesting this time is who she's looking for...not that there isn't the usual cast of whacked out, weird, and nasty FTAs (Failure To Appears) living in Trenton but not wanting to be rebonded.

And the usual cast of funny people backing up Stephanie, the best one being Lula, the former ho, former filing clerk (not that she was any good at that). Delicious!

So, to slightly twist a tired cliche...read any good (or bad) books lately?

~Nancy Beck

You Gotta Like This

I subscribe to the free lunch edition of Publishers Marketplace. I went back to an edition from late June and found this story from the Boston Globe.

The local author, Jon Papernick, has a book out by a small Canadian publisher, Exile Editions.; as of this writing, it's in pre-order status. The guy who owns the bookstore is friends with the author. The two struck a deal whereby the bookstore, Back Pages Books, will sell it exclusively until and unless Mr. Papernick's book gets an American publisher.

I know, I know. It's like David versus Goliath, to throw out a cliche. Will this be pulled off? I don't know, but I certainly hope so. As of the article date (June 24), 230 books have already been pre-ordered.

So why am I harping on this? This could be any one of us aspiring authors; we might find our first book fits in better with a small press rather than a large press. Yeah, so no Oprah, no Barnes & Noble, or whatever. What's encouraging to me is that a small, independent bookstore would go out on a limb this way for one guy (true, they're friends, but still). I mean, if the megastores are having problems, it's got to be that much harder for an independent.

So kudos to Back Pages Books for taking a chance, on Mr. Papernick for taking a chance, and on Mr. Papernick's publisher for letting him try this.

What do you think? Viable plan, or not worth the effort? And do you think they'll come anywhere near to getting those 1,000 copies sold? Here's hoping they do!

~Nancy Beck

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Is That All There Is?

Just a quick update to those in the know: The minor municipal thingy is over and done! :-) Paid a fine, didn't lose the license. Now to concentrate on the Big One That Just Won't Frickin' Go Away!

Ahem. Had to get that out of my system.

So...what news on the writing front, that is, mine, to be exact? Haven't done anything of late, as I've been preoccupied with trying to find new streams of income to keep the ship afloat (which I obviously won't get into here). However, I've been rethinking my novel WIP. I mean, it's been in the revision stage for quite a while, lol. After reading through two Stephanie Plum novels, To the Nines and Ten Big Ones, in as many days (am I a book bimbo, or what? ;-)), I realized the idea I have for my novel is kinda, sorta simila to those books; that is, tough-minded Jersey girl is forced into another career/job due to: Being almost out of money (Stephanie Plum) or About to lose job/support from ex-husband (Jackie, my MC).

While Stephanie's world is ostensibly this wacky, nutty world we know (although the amount of cars/trucks/whatever that have blown up or been burned to ground is staggeringly funny), mine is going to have a decided fantasy twist. This includes a secret society (think the Masons or any of those ancient Greek mystery cults) that includes real magic and a shadow police force.

Where does it tie in? It ties in in that Jackie is used to working in a corporate environment. She loves research - which will come in handy in her new job/career - but the magic stuff, having to deal up front with her Egyptian background and what her paternal grandfather was up to when he came to the U.S., having to deal with a certain medical background, having to deal with a potential lover...well, let's just say it's not going to be easy for her to cope.

But, dammit, she's a Jersey Girl (like yours truly :-)), and we can do almost anything.

Almost.

I'm hoping to get back to writing in about a week or so, now that one of the two cases mentioned in the first paragraph above has been dealt with.

Hallelujah for small miracles.

And yay for Stephanie Plum, and toughie women all over the planet!

~Nancy Beck

What Not to Look For in a Publisher

I was just on the Absolute Write Water Cooler, checking out a "publisher" someone asked about.

The site is nice to look at, and the owners are very up front about why they decided to start up their publishing empire: They received rejections from agents stating that those agents don't deal with unpublished authors.

Huh?

My question to the owners would be: Which agents told you this? I would insist on names, because my suspicion is that either the owners sent their mss. to a scam agent (maybe with such scam agent "suggesting" a $100 critique to make it better) or they somehow misunderstood a rejection from a legit agent who is closed to new submissions. You know, the mind can blow things all out of proportion, I suspect that's what happened here.

Another knock against this particular "publisher": You have to buy your own books. Why? They entrust it to you, dear author, to pay tribute to the Fates or something with the idea that your book may - just may - be handed to someone in Entertainment Land who will give it some sort of exposure. Or something.

Yup, just what I want the publisher of my "baby" to do. Just leave it to me and luck to get my books onto bookshelves or whatever.

Hmm. So let's recap here. If we're going the publisher route (after we've tried, and failed, to find an agent to take an interest in our book), we would steer clear of:

1. Places that insisted we have to buy X amount of our book;
2. Places that left it to luck for publicity/marketing purposes; and
3. Places that said they took all genres.
   

Oh, didn't I talk about that last one? Yeah, that's another thing. This start up is looking at all genres. What's that old saw, jack of all trades, master of none? I've read quite a bit about the publishing business (not that I know it all; I leave it to those who've been in the biz to that), and from what I've gleaned, if you want to give your publishing company any chance to make it, you're better off concentrating on one or two genres. Case in point? Try Ellora's Cave, which honed in on the erotica market; they started off as e-book only, but now can be found with print books in major bookstores.

They became expert at picking out the good'uns in the erotica field, had people in the back office who had book biz experience, and they're still in business however many years later.

Smart. And just the kind of published I'd be looking for (if I wrote erotica).

So don't sell you and your book short. If you've taken the time and the care to learn how to write and do it well, shouldn't you start at the top and work your way down? Shouldn't you give yourself some respect?

I thought so. :-)

Keep writing!

Interview

I get Dee Power and Brian Hill's newsletter (click here for their website), and in the latest one, she has an interview with Laurel K. Hamilton (the Anita Blake series). It's a short but neat interview. The one thing that struck me is what Ms. Hamilton thought was the most appealing thing about her series:

"My fan base runs from twelve year olds to sixty plus, male and female; my demographics are really broad. I've been asked this question before, so I decided to look at some other series that do as well as mine or better. What they all have in common is 'characters'. The characters have to be people that you like and enjoy being around, you want to spend time with them. They have to be real. My characters seem more real to other people sometimes than to me. They're my characters so I expect to talk about them. If I walked into the next room, I wouldn't be surprised if they were there. But when I talk to people across the country, we talk about these characters as if we could meet them. We have conversations about the characters as if we were talking about our friends."

Characters, not plot, or half a dozen other things. It's why I keep returning to the Stephanie Plum series: Stephanie and the other characters are absolute hoots.

But Ms. Hamilton also says this:

"You also need to create a world that seems real enough that the reader could step into it. I cheated, because Anita's world is as if you woke up tomorrow in this world but everything that goes bump in the night exists. That's much easier to do than creating a whole new world. If I say 'he ate an Oreo' I don't have to explain what an Oreo cookie is. But because I'm dealing with the real world, all my details have to be absolutely dead on. If the readers catch me on some fact that they know and can check me on, they won't believe in the vampires, or the zombies or the fairies. If they catch me, then their suspension of disbelief is shattered."

Worldbuilding ain't just for SF and fantasy anymore. :-) Whereas those genres need to explain certain things that aren't around in our present-day world, other genres need to do this, too, as Ms. Hamilton says above. Your world has to have rules and regulations that your characters must stick to, or else you'll be 'splaining why a certain character broke a certain rule in your universe. And you better 'splain, or you'll have a bunch of disgruntled fans muttering and complaining.

For instance, in one of the Stephanie Plum novels, Janet Evanovich has a character talking about becoming (or was) a New York Giants cheerleader. HAH! I've been an American football fan for quite some time now, and I know for a fact that the Giants have never had cheerleaders. Management always said people were there to see the team.

Of course, during the low points (and there have been plenty), I'm sure a lot of guys would've preferred looking at cheerleaders shaking their thangs as opposed to looking at the boobs on the field.

Anyway...did I grumble at that? You bet. Did I said an email off to Ms. Evanovich? Nah. I figured someone else probably brought her up on it. However, other than that, I've found the series nothing but fun. That is, the characters are interesting and very Jersey, heh heh.

So I'm trying to focus on my characters, to make them interesting, to give them flaws, to make them as human as possible (well, unless they're an alien species of some sort). Although my novel is set in the present day, I do have a couple of tweaks in it, but I'm setting it in the town (some town: it has 50,000 people in it!) I grew up in. Although a lot has changed since I lived there, most of the streets are the same, a lot of the buildings are the same, and besides, I can always take a trek across the state and check and make sure I've got stuff in the right places.

Plus, I can always bum a lunch off Mom. ;-)

Keep writing!

~Nancy Beck

Update

I'm happy to say that the short story is still cranking along, lol. It'll probably be 5,000 words before this puppy is done. (The rough draft, that is. ;-)) Anyway, the MC and her son are now past the bridge and the toll collector (I'm not talking about NJ Turnpike toll collectors here), and are heading off to the countryside where the MC originally grew up.

She's really not sure if she wants to go back. Someone lives there whom she hasn't seen in a while...but she has no choice but to be reacquainted with that person.

I'm hoping to get this done in the next week or so. After that, I'll let it rest a day or two, only coming back to it after I take a look at my WIP (my novel, which has Egyptian stuff in it).

An Aside

Speaking of Egyptian stuff, I'm currently listening to a course on Ancient Egypt that's utterly fascinating. I got it from The Teaching Company. It's a big course, and it costs more than the other courses I've bought, but I got it on sale (and it was definitely worth the price). The guy who's the instructor is an Egyptologist, and his enthusiasm is infectious. As is his knowledge of Ancient Egypt. I mean, we're talking about a civilization that lasted 3,000 years! Sure, there were "down times" (when there was almost complete anarchy, like tomb robbing), but the kings/pharoahs reappeared even after those down times. Unbelievable.

The course isn't on sale right now, but if you want to check it out, it's here.

Keep writing!

~Nancy Beck