No-Nonsense Reviews - The Dark Wife by Sarah Diemer

Pros
+ A kind, tenacious main character you can empathise with
+ Easy, flowing writing
+ Sweet and believable relationships between characters
+ Strong supporting characters

YMMV
+/- The writing was in places a little too breathless for me

Cons
- The After was a little disappointing

I saw a recommendation for this book on the author Jenny Trout's blog and, as I've always been a fan of myths retold, bought it.  And then, in the usual way of things, it sat unread for a few months before I saw it again and thought, oh hey, I'll read that one now.

I didn't have any particular expectations, but fell in love quickly with both the author's writing style and Persephone, the main character.  For quite a young and naïve girl she has the strength to stand by her convictions, even when they run the risk of backfiring spectacularly on her--and there never felt like there was any guarantee that they wouldn't.  It always felt as though there was an element of danger to her decisions.  It also didn't read like a "classicly YA" story; I quickly forgot its genre as it contains certain delicately-written love scenes that wouldn't be out of place in some of the non-YA romance I've read.

The ending was satisfying, which is possibly why the After section felt a little like a let-down, jarring in comparison to the end of the story itself.  It makes sense and fits in, it just felt a little discordant following on from the rest of the story--but it certainly doesn't detract from the overall effect of a touching love story that converts a myth into something wonderful.

• Goodreads page for The Dark Wife
• Sarah Diemer's The Dark Wife store page

Musical Interludes

Many writers are happy writing in silence; I'm not one of them.  I tune it out while I'm writing and couldn't tell you exactly which song I was listening to at any given time, but music creates a white noise for me that blocks out all surrounding distractions.

The side effect is that some bands and singers will become irrevocably stuck on certain stories.

Currently I'm listening to a lot of Johnny Flynn & The Sussex Wit, because only when I'd just finished The First Steampunk Novella (yep, still untitled) did I realise how perfectly his singing and the songs fit the story.  (The downside was that Barnacled Warship prompted a whole sequel...)  The side effect is that now, whenever I hear them, I'm transported back to Niko and Kirill's world and probably will be for the foreseeable future.

The same goes for The Killers, whose Day and Age album became synonymous with a story called Chime that (big surprise) is unfinished, but I do intend to complete one day; I listened to the CD in my car not too long ago and almost immediately found myself immersed in the plot again.  Three Graces is similar but not quite so specific, evoked by The Naked and Famous and The New Pornographers--and apparently a very similar theme with band-names.

It's even less specific with Unravel.  It's songs here and there that, left alone, provide a brief flash of nostalgia but when put together into a playlist--an exercise I did for a challenge last year--bring back memories of things that people who don't actually exist did.  It's a peculiar feeling, but between the experience of selecting songs that most accurately fit the characters and the arranging of them into a playlist, I felt like I'd learned a little bit more about my boys and their story.

Has anyone else created a playlist for their stories and, if so, how did you find the challenge?  Enlightening or frustrating--and did it spark any fresh ideas?

No-Nonsense Reviews - Come To Me by Megan Derr

Pros
+ Well-written with an easy, readable style
+ Likeable (frankly adorable) characters
+ Brilliant sex scenes

YMMV
+/- Might not make sense if you've not read Black Magic

Cons
- Not long enough!

It's quite hard to condense my feelings about this book into a coherent review, mostly because I'd preordered it, pounced on it the minute it became available and proceeded to squee pretty much all of the way through it.

I love the characters involved.  I fell pretty heavily for them in Black Magic, which I couldn't put down, so getting to read more about them was fantastic, although I (selfishly) would have loved the stories to be longer.  Both stories were sweet and both characters' personalities shone through along with just how much they love one another--and both managed to stab me sharply in the soul, something the first book also succeeded in.

I recommend picking it up for a short, fun and frisky read (both chapters contain sex), but don't blame me if you're just forced to have to buy the first one too.

• Goodreads page for Come to Me
• Buy at Less Than Three Press

• Buy Black Magic at Less Than Three Press

Character Interviews

I've seen these be mooted as an idea for "getting to know your characters better" and, to a certain degree, I think they really do work.  The only problem lies with the question: what do you do if your characters converse with each other and contribute scenes and opinions by themselves in your head?  I've never needed to ask my characters questions about themselves, because they usually contribute quite happily by themselves.

Yes, I know how I sound.  Shush.

But the idea sounds fun anyway.

So I decided that it might be quite fun to interview my characters for this blog.  If anything, it'll be something new to do, to take the place of the Meet My Desk series since I ran out of things with names.  I'm still pondering it over, and indulging in a healthy dose of procrastination by rendering "interview pictures" of said characters rather than writing--you'd be surprised at how time-consuming what ultimately amounts of 3D photography can be--but I think I'm more likely to do it than not.

If anything, mostly because I already have three pictures of various characters.

So I'd like to throw it open: is there anything you'd like to ask a character?  Whether you've read Three Graces and have something you'd like to ask Cas or David, or want to ask Milos from Unravel what it's like being the second surviving elven bioweapon, or even ask Kirill from the Unnamed Steampunk [we're getting there with a name, I think] how the front of his hair came to be white--which @SplitShilo did today actually ask!--or even just a generic question to any or all characters, then go ahead.

You can post a question in the comments box here, or email me at pax@paxasteriae.co.uk, or maybe summon one through the void with esoteric rituals and blood stone circles.

No-Nonsense Reviews - Blood Skies by Steven Montano

Pros
+ Interesting, likeable characters
+ A very different take on fantastical creatures
+ Emotive, clear description

YMMV
+/- Became very afraid of getting attached to characters very quickly

Cons
- Sometimes prone to repetition

I started reading Blood Skies, I have to admit, out of an urge to deal with the fact I have a ton of books on my Kindle, and I've read only a fraction of them.

However, it didn't take long for me to become hooked.  The story, after an initial moment of "what the hell is going on?" soon grabbed me and didn't put me down again until I'd finished.  I quickly grew fond of the likeable Eric Cross and his sister and, wanting to know more about them and the world they inhabited, didn't want to stop reading until I got to the bottom of what was happening to them.

The world was clearly described, to the point where I could imagine every scene and location in detail.  The only downside was that some facts and points were repeated after only a short time, probably to hammer home their importance but it instead gave me an odd feeling of déjà vu.  It wasn't enough to become a major detraction, but just enough to be a little irritating.  Maybe I'd have noticed it less if I'd not finished it in only a couple of sittings.

However the plot, pacing and ending were all more than satisfying; as soon as I finished it I ordered the second one and I'm looking forward to reading it.

• Goodreads page for Blood Skies
• Steven Montano's Blood Skies Series page

The Promised Handwritten Blog Post - It's National Stationery Month Soon...

Click to make it larger if necessary!

For more information, check out National Stationery Week's site and their Twitter @NatStatWeek -- and maybe consider joining me in writing something?  Please?

Copic atyouSpica Pens - Review

I bought these pens from Cult Pens last year and I kept meaning to review them, but I wasn't sure whether I had enough experience using them to be able to do so.

And then on Friday my trusty lavender pen, fading and no longer quite so glittery as it had been when it first arrived, finally died halfway through helping me plot out a story, and I realised then that perhaps, just maybe, I had been using them quite a lot after all.  So, while I'm waiting for a replacement to arrive (no I can't just use another pen, it'd feel wrong), I thought I should finally review them.

Copic atyouSpica glitter pens come individually, in a pack of twelve of a single colour, or in two sets (A and B) of every colour.  Set A contains more strident colours, such as lavender, red, sky blue--which is darker than you'd expect--as well as black, gold and silver.  Set B contains pastel colours as well as some darker versions of set A, a clear pen, and one of the blackest black pens I've seen.

The pens write very nicely and the ink flows well onto the page.  They survive my too-strong pressure and spiky handwriting admirably and don't dry out too quickly if you leave the lid off, which is particularly handy when your inspiration suddenly dies on you.

Each pen also contains glitter and the effect varies depending on the brightness of the ink: the glitter is very visible in the black pens, while it's nowhere near as noticeable in the pastel colours.  The exception to this appears to be the orange pen--at least, in my case--which is packed with a surprising amount of it.  The glitter doesn't slow down the flow and is evenly distributed in the ink.

The glitter will wear away from the page with time, but the colours remain strong and bright.

The pastel colours are hard to see on white paper, particularly in low light, as are the orange and yellow; the clear is for accent purposes and is near impossible to see.

For pens that are primarily designed for crafting they make beautiful note pens and are great for general handwriting.  I use them for colour-coding my plotting notes, as well as for a little extra sparkle for things like greetings cards.

Finally, you can get a lot of use out of one pen--I'd plotted out a novella and a half with the lavender before it died!  And more to the point, I'm surprised at how quickly I've come to rely on them--they've become my 'go-to' pens in a very short space of time.

My new lavender pen meets the pack

Reviews, And What People Expect From One

...Which is a roundabout way of saying, I have no idea what people expect.

I will freely acknowledge that I am terrible at reviewing things.  It brings up awful memories of GCSE and A-Level English book reviews that I casually tried to avoid doing until I was almost thrown out of classes.  Writing a review should be a joy, not a chore, I understand that.  You want to share your experience.  Or, at least, according to the internet, you should.

Am I the only person who finds writing reviews anxiety-inducing?  They're a minefield, or at least they seem so from Twitter, and the mines in question range from things you choose to criticise (more on that later), to whether you should review anything you didn't unequivocally love, with a smattering of "what happens when the author comes along and thanks you / bitches at you / threatens you physically?"

The reason I call my reviews "No-Nonsense" is because I, as I said above, am terrible at reviewing things, and I assume that at least some people, like me, don't really sit down to read long and involved reviews either.  I concluded that by listing things I liked, things I didn't and things that might vary from reader to reader (inasmuch as it all varies because if we were all the same we'd be a hive mind and there'd be no need to read or write stories, we'd already absorb them from the mind that created them) then I could at least review books without driving both myself and anyone who reads the reviews mad.

But when it comes to things you like and things you don't, where do you stop?  What if a book is swimming with typoes--not just the average one or two, but enough to drag you out of the book?  Is that worth pointing out, or will it bring Author Wrath down on your head should they see?

What about the price?  What if a book is worth more, in your eyes, than its sale price--or indeed worth less, or is a free copy you wouldn't have otherwise bought because the price was too high?  Are those worth noting?

I could--and probably would--plunge blindly on if it wasn't for Twitter where, in the last couple of weeks, I've seen an author threaten a reviewer because the reviewer posted a bad review, and another author assert that reviewers who refer to typos as a negative in a book review are somehow deficient and need patronising and gently insulting until they see the author's point of view: that typos should be acceptable in indie novels and the reviewer should only review the plot, not things like spelling.

Faced with those, and various subtle others, I found myself wondering, what actually is the point?  If something irritated me in a novel, apparently I shouldn't ever mention it--but then what is the point of a review?

That, in short, is why I've barely reviewed anything lately.

But I'd rather hear from you guys: what do you expect from a book review?  Should indie books be held to the same standard as ones published by the big names?  What would you like to see commented on, and what would you prefer went ignored?

Or, instead, do you even read reviews, or do you buy solely on the book's blurb?

Incidentally I do have a glowing book review to post, I'm just... building up to it.

Short Story: Valentines Day

Rating: PG
Universe: Unnamed Steampunk
Word Count: 1,128
Summary: Kirill and Niko celebrate Valentine's Day in their own way...

Kirill woke to an empty bed, and did his best to crush his disappointment.  It wasn’t the first time and it wouldn’t be the last, but it didn’t mean he liked it.  Niko had three commissions to work on—three, a headache-inducing amount to keep track of, even for him—and if he’d risen before Kirill, he must be in a particularly determined mood.  He admired his dedication, he really did, but sometimes...

________________________________________________________

No Nonsense Reviews: Let's Get Digital by David Gaughran

Pros
+ Well-written, easy to follow text
+ Real-world examples and quotes from authors
+ Optimistic outlook

 Cons
- Several sections are now slightly outdated

I bought this while in a mild panic over one of my own projects, due to it being referenced in another "how-to" book I was reading.  It was a quick read (around a day at most) and contained several helpful hints, many of which were useful and which I think I'll no doubt return to in the future, but some sections have become outdated between publication in 2011 and now -- for example, sections about pricing from big publishers omits that Apple and several publishers were sued in both the US and EU for price-fixing at higher rates in 2012 -- which is a peril for all reference books.

I recommend it for everyone who wants a 'second opinion' or perhaps simply another view into the world of self-publishing, but the optimistic author success stories felt a little like padding and I admit to only skim-reading them --  no-one is going to ask the many unsuccessful or struggling authors, are they?  (This isn't sour grapes, I should add!)

It's worth it for the price and it's very well-written, but be aware that some information in it may not be wholly relevant any longer.

• Goodreads page for Let's Get Digital: How To Self-Publish, And Why You Should