Karen S. Wiesner Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: Mina and Blood to Blood: The Dracula Story Continues by Marie Kiraly

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: Mina and Blood to Blood:

The Dracula Story Continues by Marie Kiraly

by Karen S. Wiesner

Marie Kiraly, the author's grandmother's name, is the pseudonym of Elaine Bergstrom. However, the sequel published in 2000, Blood to Blood, was written under her real name, which is probably why I never knew there was a sequel until I went to write this review. You'll find Mina available under either author name.

Mina was published in 1994. I was fairly shocked with the new cover of the book as opposed to the original, which featured the haunting image of a woman with her face turned away, dressed in blood red, staring out at the dark night and seeing a bat piercing the twilight haze. I can feel her longing. I think I prefer the old, though the reproduction below is much more washed out than the first edition hardcover I have, procured from a conference I attended ages ago and actually met the fellow author there.

  

Mina Harker, as everyone who's read Dracula knows, was the fiancée and eventually the wife of Jonathan Harker. She became the obsession of a creature of darkness. Under Dracula's control, Mina was nearly consumed. When Dracula ended, the monster was defeated, his power at an end. Or was it?

Mina: The Dracula Story Continues actually starts during the journey toward Dracula at the end of the original, with Mina, Jonathan, Van Helsing, and Quincey. Following the end-stage events of Dracula, the count's dominion was supposed to be over. Mina could return to her husband, her life, the restraints of the Victorian age. But how to return to a role that no longer fits?

Mina isn't just an erotic romance without depth. The characters were finely drawn, compelling, and even devastating. I was ensnared in the web of complications, driven by the incentive of having come to love and root for Jonathan in the original tale. He was worthy of Mina's undying loyalty. As they were both ensorcelled by an ancient creature of the dark in different ways, they shared more than simply a proper Victorian engagement prior to their misfortune. However, she and Jonathan were shackled by the society they were prominent in and couldn't easily shake such confinement. That said, being the source of Dracula's obsession for however long, Mina couldn't forget the fever awoken in her blood by her irresistible captor.

I first read Mina when I was in my late 20s or early 30s (can't remember exactly). I re-read it earlier this year. I do confess that I now believe the character of Mina, as she's portrayed in this continuation, became depraved and selfish in her quest for freedom for her lust, and I couldn't actually blame Jonathan for his inevitable actions, though his repressed and selfish behavior with Mina wasn't fully justified either. Honestly, an uninhibited conversation between these two might have solved all the problems they made for themselves by remaining silent and unwilling to admit their true feelings. I do understand that's a hallmark of the Victorian age, but it was still frustrating as a reader to recognize how simple the solution to their problems was.

As for whether I believe the character of Mina in Dracula could be extrapolated into this dark version of her, I'm not entirely convinced. While the original character of Mina did seem to desire self-sufficiency beyond what a woman of her time was allowed, I wasn't entirely convinced that her former giving and even self-sacrificing nature in the original story would have allowed the depraved transformation she undergoes in Mina: The Dracula Story Continues, even if she's not fully free of Dracula's shackles in his defeat. Mourning for what Mina and Jonathan tragically lost before their lives were played with like a monster's toy was the true horror of this story.

As soon as I found out about the sequel, I ordered Blood to Blood: The Dracula Story Continues. I found it to be as well written and compelling as the first. Blood to Blood continues the plot lines started in Mina involving the title character, her husband Jonathan, and Arthur--for those who didn't real Dracula (pretty unimaginable), he was engaged to Lucy, Mina's best friend and a victim of Dracula. In Blood to Blood, there's an added twist and tension of Dracula's sister Joanna Tepes coming to London and meeting up with Jack the Ripper himself.

Despite the obvious talent in the execution of this complex story--and really all of the author's work--I nevertheless felt a bit repulsed with this one. When a life becomes about absolutely nothing else but glutting sexual compulsions, a train wreck is inevitable. Both Mina and Arthur are similar in that way, and they de-evolved as characters while their stories moved from Dracula into Mina and finally into this sequel. The only true bright light for me was in the ending given here. (I recognize that fans of erotica might feel differently about that than I do.) Having started in the original, the plot threads carried through all three books were satisfactorily tied up on all fronts by the conclusion of Blood to Blood. For that reason, I recommend reading all three to gain that coveted closure.

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Karen S. Wiesner {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: The Andromeda Evolution by Daniel H. Wilson

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: The Andromeda Evolution by Daniel H. Wilson

by Karen S. Wiesner

As soon as I finished reading (and reviewing in last week's Friday post) The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton, published in 1969, I moved directly into reading the sequel, The Andromeda Evolution by Daniel H. Wilson, published in 2019. In fact, the story within the sequel is set 50 years after the previous events. This publication also marks the 50th anniversary of the original release.

In the time following The Andromeda Strain, in which an extraterrestrial microbe nearly caused the catastrophic end of the world, Project Eternal Vigilance has waited and watched to ensure the mutating microbe doesn't reappear. With the project on the verge of being shut down for lack of activity, abruptly a Brazilian terrain-mapping drone detects the signature of the lethal microparticle. A team is assembled and sent to investigate, ultimately tasked with attempting to prevent another potential annihilation of all humankind from the latest Andromeda Evolution.

As the previous story did, this one is presented as a classified government report. While there are many characters, it's hard to really define any of them as the main character. The closest is James Stone, son of one of the team members who saved the world in the original book. In this way, the story is heavily plot focused. However, that doesn't mean readers weren't drawn into the lives and situations of the many players involved in this highly suspenseful, race to save the world tale. In particular, I was moved by the relationship between the native Amazonian boy Tupa and James Stone. Early on while reading this book, I wanted to see a character or two from the original cross into this story, and I was pleased to have my hope rewarded. Additionally, the author mirrored Crichton's ability to create such realism, I could easily believe this story was based on actual events.

One of the most interesting parts about reading these two books back to back was seeing the advances made in technology and space travel in the 50 years between them. In fact, the author has stated his intention while writing was to acknowledge "the travel and advances made in space exploration since the 1970s".

I read the last third of The Andromeda Evolution over the course of little more than two hours. I couldn't put it down until I discovered what would happen with the evolved microparticle spurred on by a deranged, short-sighted villain, as well as to the self-sacrificing people working to prevent it from spreading and destroying the Earth as we know it.

A movie adaption doesn't seem to be in the works, despite that the original was made into a miniseries in 2008 and the plot in The Andromeda Evolution could easily comprise a thrilling second season of it. The ending of the book made me long for yet another sequel to see where it would all go, since it concluded on a bit of an unresolved angle. Though there's no indication that it might ever happen, if a follow-up does make an appearance, I certainly hope it doesn't take another 50 years.

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Sequels, Prequels, and Reading Order

Should the audience for a sequel be able to understand it completely without having read the previous book(s)? The EPIC e-book contest allowed judges to subtract points if a novel required familiarity with a prior book to be fully understood. I thought that criterion was unfair; in many fiction series, a story arc continues from one volume to the next, so that each installment legitimately depends on the previous ones. The Harry Potter series and Stephen King's Dark Tower saga are obvious examples. And some trilogies or series are actually single stories divided into multiple volumes, such as the Lord of the Rings. I recently read the final volume in Theodora Goss's delightful "Athena Club" trilogy, starring the daughters (born or created) of the classic 19th-century mad scientists. A reader might be able to understand and enjoy the second novel, EUROPEAN TRAVEL FOR THE MONSTROUS GENTLEWOMAN, without having read the first, although a lot of nuance would be lost. The third, THE SINISTER MYSTERY OF THE MESMERIZING GIRL, however, depends too heavily on the others to stand alone.

On the other hand, with most mystery series the reading order doesn't matter so much. Although the detective's character may develop from book to book, so that taking the volumes in order enriches appreciation of them, it's not necessary. Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey stories fall into this category, mostly, except for the ones involving Harriet Vane. Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple novels, on the other hand, can be read in any order with no loss of appreciation.

C. S. Lewis fans disagree on the proper order in which to read the Narnia books. Lewis didn't commit himself on that point. He agreed with a child reader who preferred the internal chronological order, but the context suggest he was just being polite. At first sight, chronological order within the universe looks logical. Most fans, however, seem to support publication order. They reasonably point out that many details in THE MAGICIAN'S NEPHEW don't have their full impact if one hasn't read THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE first. Although LION... takes place later in the timeline, it was published first, when Lewis had no idea of writing further books in that setting. Marion Zimmer Bradley encouraged new readers to approach Darkover in publication order rather than internal chronological order, because doing it the second way meant they would encounter the earlier-published novels (which she considered inferior to the later-published ones) before books written when her craft had matured.

When my husband (Les Carter) and I started plotting LEGACY OF MAGIC, the previous-generation prequel to our Wild Sorceress trilogy, I planned it so that it could be read either before or after the trilogy. Someone who picks it up first will find that it works as a stand-alone fantasy romance. For someone already familiar with the trilogy, LEGACY OF MAGIC answers some questions about the background of the characters in the other three novels and contains "Easter eggs" that will be meaningful to those readers. For people new to that world, I painstakingly tried to avoid including spoilers in LEGACY OF MAGIC that would reveal secrets meant to come as a surprise in WILD SORCERESS and its two sequels.

I'm currently working on a sequel to my recent light paranormal romance novella, YOKAI MAGIC. It might more accurately be called a spin-off, though, because the hero and heroine of YOKAI MAGIC appear only as minor characters in the new story. Prior acquaintance with them isn't necessary for understanding or enjoyment of the sequel/spin-off. Most of Mary Jo Putney's Regency-era romances work this way. Recurring characters (protagonists from previous novels) pop up from book to book, but nobody needs to read the earlier novels to enjoy the newer ones. Recognizing the established characters, however, enhances the pleasure. That's how I've structured my Vanishing Breed vampire universe. Aside from CHILD OF TWILIGHT, the immediate sequel to DARK CHANGELING (the first one published), the novels, novellas, and short stories can stand alone, with almost any one of them serving as a viable entry to the series. Similarly, readers can enter Bradley's Darkover or Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar at almost any point, as long as they read the individual books in the various sub-series in the proper order. For marketing purposes, that would be the ideal way to arrange a series. But most series with long-term story arcs building steadily from one book to the next just don't work like that.

And then there's the question of how much background information to include in a sequel. How much effort do you make to accommodate a new reader who might pick up a book in a series out of order? Or do you assume (as is more often than not the case) that a person reading a sequel is familiar with the earlier book(s)?

How do you handle sequels, prequels, the risk of spoilers, and the chance that readers might feel lost if they start in the middle?

Margaret L. Carter

Carter's Crypt

Sequel Trouble

If you have a question or topic you'd like addressed, please post it in a comment, and we'll try to help.

Lisa writes:

I might want to get going on Book 2. But knowing how much to repeat from Book 1 is becoming a bit of a struggle.

Getting going on Book 2 is a fabulous strategy. When I was doing the Unpubbed contest circuit, I noticed that the authors who were entering two titles at the same time seemed to do much better... in that they retired much sooner from the lists, and I infer that they made sales.


How much to repeat... is an important balance when you've built an alien world, and yet every book in the series has to be a stand-alone.

When I was writing Insufficient Mating Material (sequel to Forced Mate), my editor Alicia Condon suggested that I ought to take J K Rowling as my role model as regards backstory telling.

If course, I was not going get the page count or the ink. So, I spent a delightful summer acquainting myself with Harry Potter, and trying to extrapolate proportions for "potted" versions of my own backstory. (Bad pun. Couldn't resist. Sorry!)


Here's my take: (Somewhat repetitive)

1. Break any rule of thumb rather than bore your reader.

2. Avoid info dumps at all costs. (Six lines of explanation is more than enough.)

3. On any given page, tell the reader only what she absolutely must know in order to understand the current action, or rules of your alien world.

4. Delay telling as much as you can of the back story.

5. Reunions of beloved characters from the previous book are fun for your established readers, but not so much for someone coming cold to Book 2, not having read Book 1, so any cameo appearances must be meaningful and advance the new story.

6. Use family trees, charts, maps with annotations as creative and visually different techniques for communicating backstory, who's who info etc.

7. Do not rely on being able to use footnotes. Some editors will be nervous about the possibility of the printer being unable to line them up.

8. "Dear Reader" letters in the Front Matter are a possibility, but frequently are skipped by the very reader you wanted to bring up to speed.

9. Prologues ought to be short, but can be very useful and entertaining. A great example would be the J K Rowling scene where the Minister of Magic is obliged to brief the British Prime Minister.

10. Consider putting a fresh spin on the backstory by having someone else relate it... I like to remember that "Summer Lovin'" duet from Grease where the Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta characters gave different accounts of a sweet summer romance.

11. My personal favorite backstory comunicator is my own Grievous. A "Greek Chorus" character is extremely useful. Or an employee who habitually covers his backside by making absolutely sure he understands his orders.


What have I missed?

Rowena Cherry