{Guest Post} Against Reading by Emily Croy Barker, Author of THE THINKING WOMAN'S GUIDE TO REAL MAGIC

Beginning writers are usually advised to read, read, read as much as you can. Literary classics, usually: Tolstoy, Melville, Bellow, Cheever, Bronte, Faulkner - just to pick some heavyweights at random. I think that's excellent advice. Right now, though, I want to make the case for not reading.

Normally, I have a novel going at all times - and when I'm getting to the end of one, I usually make sure that there's another novel tucked into my bag, ready for me. Call it an addiction if you will. I have long ago accepted that I am powerless over this particular compulsion.

But when I was writing the first draft of The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic - which took more than three years - I drastically changed my reading habits. I gave up novels almost completely. There were some exceptions: I couldn't resist The Historian or Perdido Street Station or the last couple of Harry Potter novels, and I remember rereading Special Topics in Calamity Physics during a long train ride. Overall, though, my normal novel consumption rate, which probably hovers around a book a week, dropped to maybe ten per year.

It was painful, frankly. Why did I do this? A couple of reasons. First, I frankly didn't want to be intimidated by how much better other, published writers were. Also, I wanted to avoid imitating another writer's voice or fantasy world. I know very well that there's nothing truly original under the sun. Every book ever written - except for the very first one, I suppose - is in dialogue with its predecessors, and it wasn't as though I could forget the novels I'd already read. But I could at least give my creativity a little more room to wander.

Most importantly, however, I wanted to goad myself to write. If I could happily lose myself in someone else's novel - even during my subway ride or some other time when I couldn't write - I'd have less incentive to lose myself in writing my novel. Reading and writing are not so far apart when it comes to the role of the imagination.

And yet I still needed something to read on the subway. So I turned to reading novels in French. I don't speak French that well, and I read at a glacial pace - it took me six months to get through The Count of Monte Cristo (totally worth it, by the way!). But my ineptitude turned out to be a good thing. Reading in French was a great exercise for me as a writer, because I had to go slow and pay very close attention to language, and I was also essentially writing the novel, line by line, as I translated it mentally into English.

I finished the first draft of my novel in May 2009 - and the next time I went into a bookstore, it was like going into a bakery after being on a diet for years. Am I advocating that writers give up reading novels for the rest of their lives and learn a foreign language to boot? Not at all. But sometimes, when you really need to concentrate on doing your own work, it's a good think to turn down the volume on all the distractions, even the best ones.


*A copy of the guest post was provided through the publisher.

{Guest Post} A Criminal Defense by Steven Gore

ISBN #: 978-0062025074
Page Count: 352
Copyright: July 30, 2013
Publisher: HarperCollins

Counterintuitive.

If there is a single word that characterizes my encounter with writing crime fiction after decades as a criminal investigator, it's counterintuitive.

And it's part of the explanation why true crime makes for lousy crime fiction, why so few career-long law enforcement officers and private investigators succeed in crime writing and why most of those who do have only worked in the field briefly. In truth, much of what readers want from investigator protagonists are characteristics and habits that experienced investigators have to train out of themselves and train out of young investigators in order for them to succeed.

Readers want different things from investigators than do law enforcement agencies and private investigator clients. Readers want to feel increasing tension, while, with the rarest of exceptions, experienced investigators aim to lower it; readers want to watch investigators overcome obstacles, while experienced investigators aim to avoid them; readers want to read about characters who are uniquely qualified, while in the real world there are only investigators who are especially qualified; readers want to watch investigators run up against walls and then force their way through them, while experienced investigators aim how to slip around them; readers want spontaneity and surprise, while experienced investigators plan and plan in order to limit surprises; readers want to investigators try and try again, while clients want real investigators to get it right the first time; readers are not troubled by brash, aggressive protagonists injecting conflict into a scene, while real investigators don't inject it, they anticipate potential conflict inherent in a situation and work to mute it.

In the end, in the real world, doing all these things in these ways is both the criteria of competence and the conditions for successful investigations.

There is one kind of law enforcement that matches readers' expectations: narcotics. But it isn't at heart a crime solving assignment. Narcotics cases are generally built from leaning on people who've already been caught dirty - by patrol officers and street drug task forces and through search warrants and wiretaps - to give up those above them. It's less about solving crimes and more about discovering crimes already in progress or creating crimes by means of informants or undercover agents. The problem is that since the skills and attitudes that succeed in narcotics enforcement fail in investigations, few narcotics officers become first rate homicide detectives. Observe the contrast between the drug enforcement reality shows and A&E's The First 48. In The First 48, at least during the first few years of the show and before detectives began to play to the camera, nearly all of the excitement came from the music and the jump cuts. The detectives themselves were generally low key and methodical.

The problem for me was to translate the reality of investigation into fiction. That is to say, there could be no "When in doubt, have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand" of Raymond Chandler or "My way of learning is to heave a wild and unpredictable monkey-wrench into the machinery" of Dashiell Hammett. Rather, plots had to be driven internally and conflict had to be exploited from within, rather than imposed from without and the methods used had to be those that succeeded in real life.

On the domestic front, I'm making this effort in the Harlan Donnally novels of which A Criminal Defense is the latest, and on the international front, in the Graham Gage thrillers of which Power Blind is the latest. In each series, the central problem I faced was investigative competence: the protagonists had to apply real world methods and approaches in a realistic way. That meant applying the techniques of genre fiction to stories whose aim is realism. And the challenge was to make the stories not only informative about the real world of crime and investigation, but exciting for readers. In the end, it's the readers who will judge whether I have truly bridged the gap between the real and the fictional.


*A copy of the guest post was provided by the publisher.

{Review} Carniepunk by Various Authors

ISBN #: 978-1476714158

Page Count: 448

Copyright: July 23, 2013

Publisher: Gallery Books; Original Edition

Book Summary:

(Taken from back cover)

Rachel Caine's vampires aren't child's play, as a naive teen discovers when her heart leads her far, far astray in "The Cold Girl." With "Parlor Tricks," Jennifer Estep pits Gin Blanco, the Elemental Assassin, against the Wheel of Death and some dangerously creepy clowns. Seanan McGuire narrates a poignant, ethereal tale of a mysterious carnival that returns to a dangerous town after twenty years in "Daughter of the Midway, the Mermaid, and the Open, Lonely Sea." Kevin Hearne's Iron Druid and his wisecracking Irish wolfhound discover in "The Demon Barker of Wheat Street" that the impossibly wholesome sounding Kansas Wheat Festival is actually not a healthy place to hang out. With an eerie, unpredictable twist, Rob Thurman reveals the fate of a psychopath stalking two young carnies in "Painted Love."

Plus nine more tales from the fantastical pens of ...

• Delilah S. Dawson
• Kelly Gay
• Mark Henry
• Hillary Jacques
• Jackie Kessler
• Kelly Meding
• Allison Pang
• Nicole Peeler
• Jaye Wells

Mandy's Review:

Carnivals. They're full of fun, excitement, deep-fried yumminess, colorful lights, happy music, and an otherworldliness that is magical. Have you ever felt that there is a dark side to the carnivals? Do the carnies, the people working the carnivals, seem somewhat evil to you? Have you ever felt a slight uneasiness as you walk down the midway? In this anthology, fourteen authors take those uneasy feelings and twist them into stories that will have you looking at carnivals in a different light.

All of the stories are twisted and creepy, but I did notice a slight progression of the creepiness level as I read through each story. 

I cannot tell you the twist, but the story with the most unsuspecting twist was "Painted Love" by Rob Thurman. I was introduced to Rob's work when I read and reviewed his novel, All Seeing Eye. It was nice to see that his talent wasn't dampened with a short story, which has given me a heightened respect for him as an author. He is quickly becoming one of my must-read authors.

While the "Daughter of the Midway, the Mermaid, and the Open, Lonely Sea" was well-written and engaging, it felt as if it wasn't a part of this anthology. Yes, it incorporated the carnival and the mystical factor, but it wasn't creepy. The other stories had a darkness to them that threatened to suck you in and invade your nightmares. This one didn't. That disappointed me a little.

"A Duet with Darkness" wasn't creepy either. Although, I loved it because it gave me the story of how Melanie came to be known as the Door Maker, which I've been wanting to know since reading Allison's Abby Sinclair series for review. Thank you, Allison, for finally telling her story.

My two favorite stories in this anthology have to be Rachel Caine's "The Cold Girl" and Nicole Peeler's "The Inside Man." In both, females are the heroines and exact justice on the deserving. One story has vampires while the other has a killer clown. Both creepy in their own right. Bravo, ladies.

Overall, I think those who enjoy paranormal thrillers would likely enjoy this anthology. Halloween is right around the corner. Go grab a copy of this book and get your brain ready for all the creepiness of the upcoming holiday.

*A physical copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

{US Giveaway} The Lemon Orchard by Luanne Rice

ISBN #: 978-0670025275

Page Count: 304

Copyright: July 2, 2013

Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books

Book Summary:

(Taken from Amazon)

In the five years since Julia last visited her aunt and uncle's home in Malibu, her life has been turned upside down by her daughter's death. She expects to find nothing more than peace and solitude as she house-sits with only her dog, Bonnie, for company. But she finds herself drawn to the handsome man who oversees the lemon orchard. Roberto expertly tends the trees, using the money to support his extended Mexican family. What connection could these two people share? The answer comes as Roberto reveals the heartbreaking story of his own loss - a pain Julia knows all too well, but for one striking difference: Roberto's daughter was lost but never found. And despite the odds he cannot bear to give up hope.

Set in the sea and citrus-scented air of the breathtaking Santa Monica Mountains, The Lemon Orchard is an affirming story about the redemptive power of compassion and the kind of love that seems to find us when we need it most.

Giveaway:

The publisher will be giving away one copy of the book along with a book tote featuring the jacket cover. This giveaway is for US residents only (no PO boxes, please). The giveaway will run until August 3rd at which time a winner will be chosen. The winner will have 48 hours to respond. If the winner fails to respond within 48 hours, another winner will be chosen.

Good luck!

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{Meme} Book Blogger Hop

Welcome to the last Book Blogger Hop for July! Thanks goes to Billy from Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer for keeping this meme alive and kicking.

This week's question:

How do you organize your books to be read?

Kathy's Response:

I have SO many books at home to read that I have multiple areas where they're stored. Some are in my nightstand next to my bed. These books are the ones I plan on reading "soon" ... whether this means in the next few weeks or next few months. I have some in the basement. These are the remnants of the major bonanza of shopping I did when the Borders bookstore chain was closing. I made multiple trips there and basically lugged boxes and boxes of books home for maybe $40. It was a book lovers fantasy. In my attic I have my book sale books. These are in grocery bags. When I am between my more priority reads, I'll go reach into the bag and grab a book sale book. Sometimes they're good, sometimes not.

Mandy's Response:

Where to begin ... the books that I get in the mail sit on top of my computer desk or on the edge of one of my bookshelves so I know it still needs to be read. The books I'm currently reading are on the floor by my bed since I read a lot before I go to sleep at night. I usually keep one in my pocketbook, too, to read during my lunch break at work. Sometimes I have one started in the Kindle app on my iPhone and I'll have one or two started in my Kindle Fire HD.

I wasn't fortunate enough to have a Borders in my area for me to rack up at when they closed, but I do sometimes go shopping at the Clearance sections in my local Books-A-Million. Those books usually wind up on a separate bookshelf than the ones I get in the mail so that I know they need to be read, but not necessarily for review.

Yes ... I am ALWAYS reading something ... often, more than one something at a time.