The New Arrival

Well, here it is!  My inscribed copy of Scott Sigler's Nocturnal.  

I was surprised actually to receive it so quickly (a couple of week's ago in fact) from Borderland Books in San Francisco, which begs the question: when I order a book from Amazon why do I have to wait up to two months to receive it??

I haven't had time to really sit down and read it yet, so the review will come later, but I'm 146 pages in and enjoying what I have read so far. But, I do have to admit I'm kind of missing the fact that I'm not listening to Scott's terrible voice characterisations that made Infected and Contagious so much fun for me.

The reason why I haven't been reading much is after attempting to read Michael River's Black Witch and not succeeding due to the usual indie editing and grammatical errors, writing style and bad dialogue, I started to think that if these independent writers can create a following and have people recommending them with work as ordinary as this, then why don't I give it a go?  

I've got an idea for a novella, it's pretty original and quirky I think, I've even plotted it out quite well.  Now, all I have to do is write the damn thing, but I'm stumped.  I just cannot find the right narrative voice. I've been playing around with various perspectives and not liking any of them.  I want to write what I love to read - Robert Aickman style - but it's not working.  I've tried writing dialogue for a couple of key scenes - it's coming out extremely banal.  I'm worse than the writers I'm criticising and struggling to read!! Talk about feeling shattered.

But, Rome wasn't built in a day and Catch 22 wasn't written in a year.  I will persevere gradually and I guess one day, though I may struggle like Joseph Grand, I will come up with a decent opening line and it should all flow on from there.  One thing is for sure though, I'm not a natural! Another thing's for sure, I'm still not going to bother finishing Black Witch LOL.

The Art of Siglerism

I feel like writing a few words about the author Scott Sigler now that I have finished a second novel by him.

In a way Sigler reminds me of Australian author Matt Reilly.  Not in the way that he writes or the kind of stories that he writes but just for his sheer enthusiasm.  It is infectious and contagious (sorry for the puns there!). 

When you come across a writer like this it sweeps you up and you just want to read their work.  It doesn’t matter that it isn’t great literature, you just want to enjoy the ride.  Scott Sigler has re-invigorated my reading which has been a bit jaded of late after my misinformed decision to devote this year to Indie Authors.  I’ve tried several novels on my list and I just can’t get past their first chapters (thank goodness for Amazon’s free sample function for Kindle).  Anyway, I digress. 

What I love about Scott Sigler and Matt Reilly is their approachability.  They stay in touch with their fans, these authors really appreciate and respect their readers.  Sigler has maximised his use of social media by podcasting his books for free from his website, what a brilliant idea!  http://scottsigler.com/

I am really disappointed that I can’t be at the book signing of Nocturnal at Borderland Books in the US on Monday!  However, a quick email to the bookstore and a phone call later, I have secured a copy to be signed and posted out to me. Woo Hoo! Jude at Borderland Books was very helpful.  It sounds like a very interesting bookstore too, I wish there was one like it here on the Gold Coast: http://www.borderlands-books.com/  However, I am very impatient and knowing the postal lead times back to Australia from the US I also have a copy on order from the library J

Another medium being employed by authors lately is the use of video trailers to promote their books.  I’ve watched Nocturnal’s several times.  It just sums up Sigler’s work perfectly – it is dark, it’s bloody, it’s violent but it’s also got some humour.  Check it out:

Get your copy now and let’s catapult Scott Sigler to New York Times #1 Bestseller because he certainly deserves it.

Maxine

Promotion Spot - The New Death and Others by James Hutchings

In December I reviewed this independent novel:

http://caffeineandchapters.blogspot.com.au/2011/12/new-death-and-others-by-james-hutchings.html

If you think you would like to read it, the e-book is free on Amazon for the next couple of weeks:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005Q8Q8DY

I've been away from my blog as I've been proof reading a fantasy for a friend, and soon I'll be off to WA for Easter but I hope to return in a blogging frame of mind.  So, in the meantime give this little book a go, I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Maxine

Blah!

That kind of sums up how I'm feeling at the moment. It's nearly 9pm and my house is still hot, I'm definitely not a hot weather person.

I've been away from the internet lately as I have been busy reading and catching up on DVDs this past week.  I've caught up on my recent release horrors and I can honestly say that there was not one good one amongst them (!) apart from The Thing - Prequel which I did enjoy; the special affects were pretty good.

I re-watched Kick Ass (twice) - which has to be the coolest movie of the decade (I love the Big Daddy Warehouse scene) -  it has the lot, great story, great visual, great acting and a fantastic score. The violence is pretty intense, but somehow acceptable because you know it's based on a comic strip.  Plus, it's pretty real as the characters really do get hurt.  I love it.

I finished 11/22/63 by Stephen King and what a relief it was to read something by him that I could enjoy once again.  It was a great premise - if you could go back in time would you stop the assassination of President Kennedy?  It isn't a task that is taken lightly and the outcome sends ripples through time that are disastrous.  There were some seriously 'corny' elements which annoyed me and I guess King must be a dud in bed as his love scenes were terrible. BUT, on the whole it was a damn good story which had me wanting to know how it was going to end.

My audio book at the moment is a little gem!  I picked it up at the library and apparently it was initially a Podcast read by the author (Scott Sigler) who has a cult following.  I am finding the narration a little iffy - it's extremely American and one of the character voices comes across sounding like a gay character from South Park. However, Infected is infectious - it's a great story about a biological threat to humans - those who are infected become murderous psychopaths. Just my type of novel.  What I really like about it though are the biological elements which are taken from real life science and make the story feel quite plausible. 

If you have read a great sci fi or horror lately I'd love to know about it.  It's so hard finding something new to read.

Maxine

Horns ~ Joe Hill

I’m fairly new to Joe Hill’s work, I liked his collection of short stories in 21^st Century Ghosts, but I didn’t like Heart Shaped Box though I can’t remember why – but I do remember it was way too long.  Horns, however, has some very nice writing in it and I really liked the themes and how the characters developed.  I guess you can call Horns a love story, but it’s not your regular romance, so don’t go putting down your Mills and Boon in a hurry – as it may not be for you!

Ignatius Perrish, the protagonist, awakes one morning after getting very drunk the night before to find that he has grown horns.  People who fall under the influence of the horns will tell Ig their darkest secrets and desires which, at first, he finds very alarming especially when he learns what his parents really think of him.  But, Ig’s parents have good reason for harbouring bad thoughts about him, as they believe that he murdered his girlfriend and got away with it.  No one had been charged over Merrin’s death, but under the horn’s influence Ig’s older brother Terry confesses that it was their mutual friend Lee Tourneau.  

And so evolves a story of good vs evil, sin vs faith, revelations, love and revenge with lashings of magic realism, and some great back-stories.  I especially liked Lee’s memory of a contrary cat and setting the moon straight.  I have a feeling that some of these scenes were once short stories, but it all works very well.

Horns is a devilishly tongue in cheek dark fantasy and I really liked it.  

Maxine

Not Quite The Castaway

Robinson Crusoe isn’t quite the castaway that I was expecting when I read this novel last week (especially comparing it to the excellent movie Castaway) but he is enormous fun. 

I had this on my reading list because last year I read The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins and it was the favourite novel of one of the characters who constantly quoted from it.  It certainly does contain plenty of thought provoking anecdotes.

Crusoe is the sole survivor of a shipwreck (not his first either by the way) and he spends the next 28 years marooned on a desert island.  Amazingly though this island seems to be able to supply him with all his wants and needs – there are goats which he kills for meat and obtains milk; and grapes which he dries into raisins to begin with.  Later he grows corn, makes a type of bread, learns how to make cheese, weaves baskets and fires clay pots.  He has a ‘house’ on the beach which he calls his ‘castle’ and then he has his ‘country retreat’ further into the island.  Crusoe certainly makes the best of a bad situation, whilst berating himself for not taking his father’s advice many years ago and abandoning his plans to go to sea in the first place.  His father, being a pious man, had planted the seed in Crusoe’s mind about God's punishment should he go to sea which he refers to throughout the novel.

Whilst the plot is pretty whimsical, it does reach a defining moment when one day the lonesome Crusoe finds a footprint in the sand.  Suddenly the idealistic life becomes one of fear and constant looking over his shoulder.

Daniel Defoe

There are plenty of moments where you just cringe, but they do relate to the times when this novel was written.  Crusoe was in fact on a voyage to purchase Negroes, to bring back to the Brazils as slaves, at the time of his shipwreck.  One day after many years on the island, and with cannibals being bi-annual visitors to the other side of the island, he saves a Negro man from imminent consumption.  This man is called Friday as that was the day, by Crusoe’s reckoning, on which he saved him.  We never actually find out what this poor man’s real name is.  Crusoe dresses Friday in jackets and breeches made from goatskin which probably would have been excruciatingly uncomfortable, not to mention hot, and taught Friday to say his (Crusoe’s) name which was ‘Master’!!  Appalling!

The best thing about this book though, for me, was the fact that it was written nearly 300 years ago yet the language is simple and the story entertaining. I can imagine Defoe in his elaborately curly wig, fingers stained with ink, writing with his quill by candlelight, and giving his readers a glimpse of far away places that most people could not even begin to imagine yet alone visit.  That’s pretty magical.

Until next time

Maxine

Well Dean, You Have Lost Me

Stephen King is hanging by a thread, but he may redeem himself with 11/22/63 which I do happen to be enjoying (200 pages in), but Dean Koontz has done his dash with me.

I have just read his biggest load of drivel yet - What The Night Knows.  I wasn't expecting much when I picked it up, but it didn't even rise to that expectation.  I don't understand publishers, is it really all about a quick buck?  If a newbie writer had submitted this rubbish it would most definitely have been rejected.

So what was wrong with this piece of junk?  Well, pretty much everything!

Plot

It's all been done before.  The premise was just like the Denzel Washington movie Fallen - you know, the one where an evil entity jumps from person to person to achieve its end.  I'll give a little on that one, it's probably hard to come up with new ideas, especially when you pump out as many 'novels' as Koontz, and they do say 'don't write what has never been written before, but write what only could have been written by you'. However, in this case it was a poor job indeed.

Charactisation

I think that Koontz needs to spend more time in the real world, with real people/families.  When you read horror you need to suspend your disbelief, this is the nature of the genre, but you do need decent characters that the reader can relate to.  If you can't relate to them, you don't care what happens to them, and you don't care where the story is headed.  The characters in What The Night Knows are totally unbelievable, the protagonist's family are too perfect, his descriptions too corny and sickly sweet.  The protagonist is a cop yet he lives is this huge house with staff to cook and clean for the family whilst the wife paints.  The kids are home schooled, with no set bedtime hours, and intelligent beyond their years.  It just doesn't ring true.  This is an area where Stephen King stands head and shoulders over Koontz - you connect with his characters, you care about them, and he can write from a child's point of view brilliantly.

Horror

Where was it?  Readers today are more sophisticated, we need that feeling of dread and building tension, throwing in a few murders and an evil spirit just doesn't cut the mustard I'm afraid.  What happened to the writer who penned Phantoms, Watchers and my favourite Odd Thomas (discounting those dreadful sequels)?  

In short What The Night Knows is an example of how not to write a horror novel and is just an outright insult to his fans.

Bitterly disappointed,

Maxine