Guest Author Post

This week we have a guest blog, in Q & A form, from multi-genre author Karen Hulene Bartell:

"What inspired you to begin writing?"

IMHO, reading is the inspiration for and entry into writing.

Born to rolling-stone parents who moved annually--sometimes monthly--I found my earliest playmates as fictional friends in books. Paperbacks became my portable pals. Ghost stories kept me up at night--reading feverishly. Novels offered an imaginative escape, and the paranormal was my passion.

An only child, I began writing my first novel at the age of nine, learning the joy of creating my own happy endings…However, I got four pages into my first “book” and realized I had to do a lot of living before I could finish it!

So here I am all these decades later, still creating my own happy endings…

"What genres do you work in?"

More often than not, I write paranormal romances, but I also write political-suspense thrillers and frontier romance.

"Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?"

Mostly, I “wing it.” Occasionally at the end of a day, I’ll make a brief outline of the action I want to write about the following day, but overall, I’m a “pantser.”

"What is your latest or next-forthcoming book?"

Actually, I have two books coming out this spring. Kissing Kin was released March 13, and Fox Tale will be released April 8.

Kissing Kin Overview:

Maeve Jackson is starting over after a broken engagement—and mustering out of the Army. No job and no prospects, she spins out on black ice and totals her car.

When struggling vintner Luke Kaylor stops to help, they discover they’re distantly related. On a shoestring budget to convert his vineyard into a winery, he makes her a deal: prune grapevines in exchange for room and board.

But forgotten diaries and a haunted cabin kickstart a five-generational mystery with ancestors that have bones to pick. As carnal urges propel them into each other’s arms, they wonder: Is their attraction physical…or metaphysical?

Fox Tale Overview:

Heights terrify Ava. When a stranger saves her from plunging down a mountain, he diverts her fears with tales of Japanese kitsune—shapeshifting foxes—and she begins a journey into the supernatural.

She’s attracted to Chase, both physically and metaphysically, yet primal instincts urge caution when shadows suggest more than meets the eye.

She’s torn between Chase and Rafe, her ex, when a chance reunion reignites their passion, but she struggles to overcome two years of bitter resentment. Did Rafe jilt her, or were they pawns of a larger conspiracy? Are the ancient legends true of kitsunes twisting time and events?

"What kinds of research do you do for your Western novels?"

I enjoy researching all my novels. In fact, I’d say it’s one of the parts I like best about writing, but the research for Kissing Kin, Book II of the Trans-Pecos series, was especially complex--as well as physically demanding and a whole lot of fun!

Why do I describe Kissing Kin’s research as complex?

A big reason is that the manuscript underwent several iterations before being published. The first version was a story about two generations linked by Covid and (via journals) the Spanish Flu of 1918. However, publishers passed on it, saying readers were sick of pandemics.

Because the second version would have been part of a series set in Colorado, I changed the location, names, and family relationships. I also adapted the story to fit the series’ outline and removed the flu, but that version didn’t fly, either. My third attempt is the version being released March 13th, which required further revisions and, occasionally, restorations. Try, try, and try again…

Greed and a checkered family history shaped the property lines for Kissing Kin, where some of the characters swindled the land from its rightful owners. This aspect led me into a hornet’s nest of legal research: warranty deeds, quitclaim deeds, squatters rights, and a process called adverse possession. Both Texas and Colorado are ‘notice’ states, which means that recording documents legally notify the public of property transfers. But the state laws differ, and I had to research both sets of laws, rewriting the second version with Coloradan laws, and then redrafting the third version, while reverting to the Texan laws.

Karen’s “legal” advice 101: Warranty deeds are better than quitclaim deeds, but recorded warranty deeds are rock solid--unless squatters rights and a process called adverse possession come into play. Then you have a legal fight on your hands--as well as a thickening plot…

Kissing Kin is mainly set in a vineyard. As vintners, farmers, and ranchers know, nature can be cruel. Pierce’s Disease attacks grapevines from Florida to California, where insects called sharpshooter leafhoppers spread the bacteria. I’d never heard of Pierce’s Disease. I have no background in vineyards, and I have a brown thumb. Plants would rather die than live with me. Because of my total lack of knowledge, I had to research the disease, its carriers, and the way to control it.

I learned a new, nicotine-based pesticide eradicates the leafhoppers. I also learned from my grandmother’s hand-printed recipe book, that she treated chicken lice in the 1930s by painting their roost perches with nicotine-sulfate. Apparently, nothing’s new under the sun.

PTSD was another new area of exploration. Two of Kissing Kin’s characters suffered from its symptoms, which wreaked havoc on them--as well as their relationships.

However, the most entertaining research included picking and stomping grapes in two central-Texas vineyards. (I love hands-on (and feet-on) study 😉)

Why do I describe Kissing Kin’s research as physically demanding and a whole lot of fun?

After learning how to prune the vines and harvest the grapes, I did a Lucy-and-Ethel grape stomp--which was sloshing good fun! Of course, the best research was the wine tasting that followed the stomping!

"What are you working on now?"

My WIP is Silkworm, a political-suspense thriller set in Taipei, Taiwan, that portrays a US Senator’s daughter caught between two men, two cultures, two political ideologies, and the two Chinas.

A love triangle is the metaphor for Taiwan and China (the two dragons) competing for geopolitical and technological accords with the US. As mainland China seeks to recover the third of its lost provinces–Taiwan–Rachel Moore struggles to escape the triple nightmare of impending war, a marriage of convenience, and an assassination plot against the man she loves. Silkworm weaves their stories with the trilateral events currently erupting in Southeast Asia.

"What advice would you give to aspiring authors?"

I’ve received little writing advice. However, I started life as an actor and received an immense amount of advice for that career.

The best advice I received was to keep at it--in that case, acting, but the same words apply to writing. Keep at it. Don’t quit. Keep honing your craft and, eventually, you’ll succeed.

The worst advice I’ve received was from an editor--translation: a frustrated author—who demanded I indiscriminately follow her redrafting of my manuscript in an attempt to overwrite my style with hers.

However, my advice for writers is to R E A D! Read everything that interests you. Read when you’re bored. Read when you can’t sleep. Read at the beach…in front of the fire…in bed…waiting for doctor appointments…

Then begin reading genres that are similar to the style in which you’d like to write. Analyze what works and what doesn’t. Find common denominators or rules of thumb between the characters or plots. What makes memorable characters? How does the author maintain the story’s fast pace or add to its suspense? Decide specifically what you like about each author’s style.

Next, start writing about what interests you. Express yourself as honestly as possible. Write about what you know, what you’re familiar with—even your childhood. Keep a notebook. Jot down ideas as they come to you!

Finally, start drafting a story that “grabs you.” Push through that first draft to the end, no matter how painful. (There’s a magic wand called rewrite that allows you to complete any half-baked thoughts later.) The point is to finish the first draft. See it through. Only then should you go back and develop your story.

Occasionally, you’ll find that the story--and even the characters—will seize the pen (AKA your imagination) and draft the story for you!

Sometimes, it’s good to take a vacation from your manuscript. When you return to it, you’ll find your thoughts will have gelled and expressing them comes more easily.

Then rewrite. If necessary, rewrite again and again until your story accurately expresses your message.

Finally, polish your prose. Go back and read each line out loud. The ear catches what the eye misses. Refine your words and phrases until they sparkle.

Before you know it, you’ll have found a genre, even--dare I say it?--your style!

How did I start writing? My first published books were cookbooks—now, thanks to Google, recipes appear online in milliseconds. Cookbooks may no longer be your entry into the published world, but I still recommend writing non-fiction before fiction, be it via textbooks or any form of technical writing.

"What is the URL of your website? What about other internet presence?"

Website – Author Website

Connect – Contact

Buy Links –

UNIVERSAL LINK: Universal Link

AMAZON: Amazon

GOODREADS: Goodreads

APPLE: Apple

BARNES & NOBLE: Barnes and Noble

Social Media Links –

Facebook: Facebook

MeWe: MeWe

Twitter: Twitter

Goodreads: Goodreads

Website: Karen Hulene Bartell

Email: info@KarenHuleneBartell.com

Amazon Author Page:Amazon

Instagram: Instagram

BookBub: BookBub

LinkedIn: LinkedIn

AUTHORSdb: AUTHORSdb

A Bad Week For Security

Last week was a bad one, at least for my discretionary (aka writing) time. 

As writers, we are under pressure to promote, which means populating social media sites, making lots of friends, supplying bio material for widespread publication in our books' back matter. All this information sometimes means that the answers to poorly-chosen (and one does not always get a choice of the questions) security questions could be extrapolated...assuming that the original answers were truthful.

The trouble with secret lies is that they are not easy to remember. One needs to keep an imaginary-family tree taped to the back of one's desktop, maybe, populated with imaginary cousins and grandparents, first born children with middle names, imaginary best men and bridesmaids, wedding and honeymoon destinations, street names, first car makes and models and so forth.

If everyone did that, there would be less point for would-be identity thieves to bother with Facebook or LinkedIN, because even if they discovered the true information there, it would not answer bank security questions.

Back to the tale of woes from last week. By email, I received log-in security codes that I had not requested from three social networking sites that I have not visited in years.

I also received a call from a house cleaner whom I was not expecting, telling me that she would be late for an appointment that I had not made, facilitated by a site with whom I had fulfilled my six-month contract a month ago and cancelled renewal. To cancel the appointment to which I had not agreed might have cost me well over $100.

Two banks, a brokerage house, and a professional organization sent me warnings about scams of various sorts.  Happily, those were generic, unlike the alerts from the five or six separate identity-theft-protection vendors to which I subscribe.

My caller id showed me that some of the spam calls that came in with their tell-tale whoosh noises during the week claimed to be from a former employer. I tried to return one of those calls, unfortunately. I also gave a carefully worded piece of my mind to the fifth caller in one day who claimed to represent my television company, but could not name the company that provides my visual entertainment.

I've had to file a fraud report, close down a credit card, log in to sites I don't like to visit in order to change multiple passwords, and change credit card auto-pay information.

The one ray of sunshine was that a lawyer pointed me to an entertaining Forbes article: 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/lawrencelight/2021/09/11/the-home-title-theft-baloney/?sh=706bb28a242d

I've also gleaned some tips, many of them obvious.

If there are financial sites that you visit, bookmark them or use your History. It's best to avoid looking for a link online, especially a "sponsored link", because bad actors can buy a sponsored link and redirect the unwitting to a spoofed site. What's more, "sponsored" links tend to show up higher on the search page than legitimate ones.

However, if you must search and click, before you log in (and perhaps expose your user name and password to a villain), check the Home Page and see whether or not the site has a Privacy Policy. 

It used to be the case that spoofers and scammers could be relied upon to misspell something or to use bad grammar. Alas, AI helps the bad and the good. Nevertheless, an url to a fake site might contain odd domain extensions. Pay attention to the faint print in your page-bar.

Be suspicious if the site does not take you to what you expect to see, and you are asked to call a telephone number shown on the screen. Call the number on your statements, or at least verify the publicly listed number for the business, do not use the number on the screen.

Some of the AI bots that answer telephones for reputable sites will ask you to identify yourself by typing in your user name and password (using the numbers on the keypad). Don't do that. Don't agree to voice recognition, either. Sometimes, the bots will want to use voice recognition without your consent, and if you are prone to sinus infections or laryngitis, this will be a problem

Only download software when you know that you are on the legitimate site you expect to be on, and if you have satisfied all the multi-factor authentication "hurdles" that you have set up.

A moderately sophisticated crook can deceive email or phone systems. We used to be upset when a call from a telemarketer appeared to come from our own name, or the "From" line in an email spam is ones own name. These days, they could write in the name of a loved one, or an employer, or one's bank, or even one's doctor. So, if "your bank" emails or texts you and asks you to transfer funds, don't respond in the most immediate and convenient way.

Never feel pressured to act immediately when someone asks for money or information.

Don't forget, those "Hello, Grandma," phone calls still happen, but nowadays, with AI and deep fakes, your car-crashing grandson might actually sound like your living relative.

Finally, readers are being scammed on Amazon, and no doubt on other reputable and technically impressive sites where books can be published without human-to-human interaction.

According to Authors Guild, when a well publicized book is about to be released for sale, scammers call on AI to create artificially-written versions, or "summaries", or "companion books" referencing the same title and author-name but with low quality fake content.

Authors of memoirs and autobiographies are recent victims of AI, where the original work is copied, recycled, rewritten with the same facts expressed in synonyms. In other words, it is plagiarized. It is obviously not fair use, and because it is AI, it cannot be copyrighted, but that does not stop the nuisance, the reputational harm, and financial harm to readers, authors, booksellers, and everyone else in publishing.

All the best,

Rowena Cherry

SPACE SNARK™ 

http://www.spacesnark.com/   

http://www.rowenacherry.com

EPIC Award winner, Friend of ePublishing for Crazy Tuesday   

Karen S. Wiesner: Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: The Ghost Prison by Joseph Delaney

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: The Ghost Prison by Joseph Delaney

by Karen S. Wiesner

After I finished my last writing reference, I'd started to hear about a trend going around writing circles. In direct opposition of everything I'd ever taught in my writing series about the crucial need to go deep with characters, writers were being told that it's best not to include more than basic information about main characters, not even providing last names for them--this supposedly allows readers to fill in the blanks with their own details, making the characters whatever they want them to be.

In my mind, this is a big mistake. How can character development be fluid enough to allow something like that without compromising everything vital in a story? Individual character choices directly influence outcomes. If a character isn't well defined, motives and purposes are constantly in question as well as in flux. Ultimately, characters that have no impact on readers make for a quickly forgotten story.

I want a good balance of character and plot development in the stories I'm willing to invest myself in, and I'm not getting it with most of the new stuff coming out. So I've been re-reading the books that have made it onto my keeper shelves in the past. To that end, here's another "oldies but goodies" review.

The Ghost Prison by Joseph Delaney is said to be a tangential installment of his wonderful The Last Apprentice Series (reviewed here: 

https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/search?q=The+Last+Apprentice), and it's clear by the language that it's set in the same world. Billy Calder may well have become an apprentice of the Spook John Gregory in another life, but in this story he's simply a 15-year old orphan boy who seizes the opportunity to gain independence from the Home for Unfortunate Boys by taking a job as a castle prison guard. He's given almost no training. After waking up late for his first shift, he rushes to the prison from the orphanage. His supervisor isn't pleased. Beyond that, night in the prison is anything but boring, given the number of supernatural prisoners that have to be tended to. An illness removes his boss and leaves Billy in charge, forced to take over horrifying duties he doesn't have the experience or skills to handle.

This short tale published just before Halloween in 2013 is intended for 4-7th graders, but don't let that stop you. Why should they have all the fun? This story is one that anyone who loves a good chiller will enjoy just as much as I did. Billy is a plucky Pip-like kid who doesn't give up or give in easily, even when it might be wise to just run for his life and not look back. Scott M. Fischer's black and white sketches all through the book are perfect accompaniments to the fun, suspenseful text. This is a story filled with a well-developed, brilliant personality that allows you to share directly in Billy's conflicts and root for him to triumph.

Next week, I'll review another Oldie But Goodie you might find worth another read, too.

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/

45th International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts

I've just returned from the ICFA in Orlando, with perfect weather all four days (five counting Sunday morning departure). This year's theme was "Whimsy." Author guests were urban fantasy writer C. E. Murphy and poet and fiction writer Mary Turzillo. Special guest scholars were a husband-wife pair from Senegal, Mame Bougouma Diene and Woppa Diallo. He was present in person, and she delivered her luncheon address over Zoom. I bought a copy of Turzillo's story collection COSMIC CATS AND FANTASTIC FURBALLS, a delightful "litter" of science fiction stories involving cats. I especially like "Chocolate Kittens from Mars." At one of the two luncheons, a free book given away was a poetry collection by Turzillo and Marge Simon (a constant contributor to the horror zine NIGHT TO DAWN and the cover artist for my collection DOCTOR VAMPIRE), which I picked up. At C. E. Murphy's author reading on Thursday night, her two selections impressed me so much I ordered the books as soon as possible, ROSES IN AMBER (a "Beauty and the Beast" retelling) and a funny shapeshifter romance, SOMEBUNNY TO LOVE (under the name "Zoe Chant"). I'm pretty sure that's the only were-rabbit romance I've ever read, and the were-rabbit is the heroine.

I participated in two sessions, a group "Words and Worlds" author reading and a panel on Vampire Humor, which I organized and moderated. In the "Words and Worlds" time slot, I read a short section from "Therapy for a Vampire," one of three lighthearted stories in my e-book collection DOCTOR VAMPIRE, and all of a humorous fanfic, "Support Group," in which my vampire psychiatrist, Roger Darvell, leads a therapy session for a group of vamps from popular culture. You can read it free here:

Support Group

People laughed in the right places, and I received some gratifying comments later. The vampire comedy panel discussed numerous books, movies, and TV programs, with lively input from the audience.

The Lord Ruthven Assembly, our vampire and revenant sub-group, chose a new president. After the business meeting, we viewed the rather odd and lesser-known Hammer movie VAMPIRE CIRCUS. Popcorn was served. Then our resident film historian, Lokke Heiss, delivered a brief presentation (with slide show) on "why NOSFERATU is not an Expressionist film." Our book and media awards for both 2022 and 2023 were announced at the Saturday night banquet: Nonfiction, A HISTORY OF THE VAMPIRE IN POPULAR CULTURE by Violet Fenn and CONTAGION AND THE VAMPIRE by Simon Bacon; fiction, A DOWRY OF BLOOD by S. T. Gibson and THE GOD OF ENDINGS by Jacqueline Holland; other media, INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE (TV series) and THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER (movie).

Some other highlights: This year's version of "50 Shades of Nay," the panel on consent in speculative fiction, didn't focus on interactions among fictional characters, as I'd expected. They apparently covered that in previous years. Instead, they mostly discussed issues that arise among authors and readers, which I had never thought of in those terms -- does the reader "consent" to encounter certain potentially traumatic situations in fiction, and when are trigger warnings appropriate? They even mentioned a whole website for readers who want to be forewarned, which covers many more tropes besides animal deaths. (Unfortunately, one has to register to be able to read the material.)

Does the Dog Die?

A panel on editing practices in fantasy and SF included a retrospective on Lester and Judy-Lynn Del Rey of Ballantine Books and how they ignited the modern fantasy boom. The panelist presented a chart showing the "Tolkien score" of various authors, that is, how many tropes similar to elements in THE LORD OF THE RINGS their works contain. Cool! A session labeled "Psychology and Wonder: The New Uses of Enchantment," rather than focusing on the psychological effects of fairy tales on children as I'd expected (although they did get into that toward the end), delved into suggested procedures for counseling Donkey in the Shrek series with techniques from various contemporary schools of psychology. Also a lot of fun.

My plane arrived in Baltimore on time Sunday; however, it landed without my suitcase because a batch of luggage for that flight had been left behind in Orlando. After much waiting around, I filled out a report, and we drove home. Southwest delivered the errant bag early the next morning. Too bad it couldn't have walked onto the plane on little feet by itself, like the Luggage in Pratchett's Discworld series.

Happy Spring Equinox!

Margaret L. Carter

Carter's Crypt

Before I Eat Snakes... (Mad Cow and Me)

The Red Cross won't take my blood. No matter how overdrawn the blood banks are, some blood is just too muddy to be accepted as a donation to those who desperately need a transfusion.

As you might infer, my post today is an opinion piece, anecdotal, unscientific and bordering on a rant... and inspired by some of the legal blogs I've read this week about "Green-washing" in advertising.

One such blog is by David Mallen of the law firm Loeb & Loeb LLP, and appears to discuss one State's objections to bovine flatulence and the claims of a farming enterprise that they are going to reduce their greenhouse gas footprint to net zero, or some such thing.

https://quicktakes.loeb.com/post/102j2cu/advertising-aspirations-for-reducing-environmental-impact-invites-charges-of-gree#page=1

My understanding was that greenhouse gases were at a rather higher level when dinosaurs roamed the earth, ate massive quantities of vegetation or each other. In fact there is an article (by Eyder Peralta) that reports on an amusing theory that dinosaurs farted themselves to death. It seems apocryphal. It has been debunked.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2012/05/07/152203680/scientists-estimate-dinosaurs-passed-enough-gas-to-warm-up-the-planet

Nevertheless, there was a virtuous cycle to Jurassic carbon levels. Plants grew faster in the presence of extra plant food (or carbon dioxide). See the science fair project for proof.

Maybe, instead of eating bugs and snakes, we should grow bumper crops of lettuce, and hardy and prolific dandelions, and cactus. It could break "Big Pharma" because it could prevent a lot of very profitable lifestyle diseases and maladies.

The trouble with snakes is that they eat their own kind. They are cannibals, and the trouble with cannibals is that they go mad and die young. That is an over-generalization, of course. One example is KURU.

There have been studies on the acquisition and grim progression of prion diseases, such as by Johns Hopkins:https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/prion-diseases

There is also a provocative study about the source of one of Americans' most favorite breakfast food. http://www.cresa.cat/blogs/sociedad/en/sobre-porcs-i-levolucio-dels-prions/

Unfortunately, pigs are omnivores, which means that they will eat their young, and others. The other possible reason that Leviticus banned the eating of pork is that they are vectors for human tape worms. 

 

The Bible also has something to say about eating snakes. 

https://evangelicalfocus.com/zoe/2165/eating-reptiles

So, before I eat snakes, I would turn vegetarian while I wait for at least a two-generational study of what becomes of snake-eaters over time. Maybe they could serve snake at Davos and Greenbriar, or, they could start by feeding fillet of a fenny snake to humanized mice. 

By the way, see the Comments on the Witches Brew, the comments are (IMHO) better than the commentary, but I used the link for the quote from The Scottish Play.

As for my blood, it might have 50-year old prions in it, still, from the possibility that I might have consumed a portion of a cow that had been fed the unnatural diet of feed enriched with Scrapie-infected sheep bits and bobs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovine_spongiform_encephalopathy 

 

Obviously, that is ridiculous (about Mad Cow Disease and me), but my reservations about snakes in my diet, even if they really do taste like chicken (and they say that about alligator tail, too) is reasonable, look what a witches' brew they are of diseases:

https://www.merckvetmanual.com/exotic-and-laboratory-animals/reptiles/viral-diseases-of-reptiles

 

All the best,

Rowena Cherry

SPACE SNARK™ 

http://SPACE www.spacesnark.com/  

http://www.rowenacherry.com

Karen S. Wiesner: Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: The Host by Stephenie Meyer

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: The Host by Stephenie Meyer

by Karen S. Wiesner

After I finished my last writing reference, I'd started to hear about what I thought was a "flavor of the day" trend going around writing circles. In direct opposition of everything I'd ever taught about the crucial need to go deep with characters, writers were being told that it's best not to include more than basic information about main characters, not even providing last names for them--this supposedly allows readers to fill in the blanks with their own details, making the characters whatever they wanted them to be.

I can't impart to you just how much I disliked that idea then, and how much I hate it now. First, my characters don't belong to readers. They belong to me. And, since they're mine, I choose who they are and what they stand for, what choices they make. It's inconceivable to me that any writer would surrender proprietary rights of character development to readers, that author's don't care enough about every aspect of their stories and craft to protect them from poking and prodding, breaches and violations. Beyond that, how can character development be fluid enough to allow something like that without compromising everything vital in a story? There can be no solid ground in that situation.

Individual character choices directly influence outcomes. That's a no brainer. Logically, if a character isn't well defined, motives and purposes are constantly in question as well as in flux. Additionally, if readers can't understand where the characters are coming from, then how can the story make any kind of sense? 

Ultimately, how can readers root for characters and want them to succeed? They can't. Readers not emotionally invested enough to, frankly my dear, give a damn what happens move on, unimpressed. Don't kid yourself: A story without impact is quickly forgotten.

Unfortunately, what I thought was a trend that would come and go quickly ended up becoming the norm in the last few years. So many of the books I read these days, the films and TV shows I watch have characters that just make no impact on me whatsoever. Even if I'm captured by a plot, the imbalance of bad things happening to unformed lumps of clay that haven't bothered trying to convince me to care…well, what can I say? I'm not moved. There's more of an eh, so what? response while I move on and I don't look back.

This really came home to me recently. I watched the science fiction suspense movie called I.S.S. and, later, someone asked me how it was. My response? "It was good with a compelling plot, but I never learned much of anything about the characters involved in the conflict. Bits here and there." At the end of the movie, the survivors had a short conversation, to the effect of:

#1: "Where are we going?"

#2: "I don't know."

My brain reacted to this with a sum up with, Who cares?

I was barely curious about what might happen next, though normally I hate stories that end on a cliffhanger.

I can't help feeling about this and other stories like it, what a waste. This film could have been so much better, so much more memorable if only the writers cared enough to make us care. Another forgettable installment that'll fall by the wayside instead of resonating with people for longer than the one hour and thirty-five minutes it took to watch it.

For at least the past year, I've found myself much less interested than usual in reading anything new because it's such a rare thing now to find something with a good balance of character and plot development. In my mind, both are required if I'm going to invest myself emotionally, physically, and financially. So I've been re-reading books from my huge personal library that I liked enough to put on my keeper shelves in the past. Over the next month or two, I thought I'd revisit a few of these oldies but goodies with reviews.

The Host was the first new work by Stephenie Meyer after the Twilight Saga reached its pinnacle. Published in 2008, the romantic science fiction tells the tale of Earth being invaded by an enemy species in a post-apocalyptic time. A "Soul" from this parasitic alien race is implanted into a human host body. In the process, the original owner loses all memories, knowledge, even the awareness that any other consciousness ever existed. However, one Soul, called Wanderer (or Wanda), quickly realizes its original host won't be so easily subdued. Melanie Stryder is alive and well and begins communicating with Wanda. Like it or not, Wanda begins to sympathize and realize the violation her species has visited upon humans. The movie adaptation in 2013 was faithful to the story told in the book.

It's never easy for an author that reached the heights of fame Stephenie Meyer did when Twilight fever swept the world to move past such an epoch. The Guardian reviewer Keith Brooke, unfairly I think, said of The Host, "The novel works well, and will appeal to fans of…Twilight…but it is little more than a half-decent doorstep-sized chunk of light entertainment." The Host was well-written and interesting, a solid balance between fully fleshed out characters and conflicts. I enjoyed it. Its only real flaw was falling in the shadow of its dazzlingly bright predecessor.

The author has said she'd like to make this book into a trilogy, and in February 2011, she reported she'd completed outlines for them, even done some writing. Thirteen years later, the only non-Twilight related work from the author has been The Chemist, released in late 2016, a suspense story with no connection to her previous books. Sometimes it's hard to return to things you've been away from for so long, they no longer feel like your own. Maybe that's the case here, and if it is, luckily the story contained in The Host is satisfying without requiring anything more to tie up loose threads.

Next week, I'll review another Oldie But Goodie you might find worth another read, too.

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/

ICFA

Greetings from the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts in Orlando. This year's theme is Whimsy. You can read about the annual conference here:

ICFA

I'll report on it next week.

Margaret L. Carter

Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.

Karen S. Wiesner: The Hit List: Young Adult Series Favorites {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: The Maze Runner Series by James Dashner

The Hit List: Young Adult Series Favorites

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: The Maze Runner Series by James Dashner

by Karen S. Wiesner

In the first half of the 2000s, Young Adult series were all the rage, dominating the attention of teenagers and adults alike. Several that became household topics at the height of their popularity, enjoying fame as both book and movie series, seem to have fallen by the wayside since. Even still, I find many of those unique tales are well worth returning to for a fresh perspective. Over the next month or two, I thought I'd revisit a few series that would make any hit list of past favorites.

Although this series has been around a long time and, if people wanted to read it, they probably already have, in fairness, I'm including this disclaimer because some of the newer entries in the series might be unfamiliar to readers who may want to read them first: Warning! Spoilers!

I'm not actually sure I remember what made me pick up this series in the first place, but the situation in the first story is very compelling. A group of teenage boys find themselves in a place they call the Glade. None of them can remember how they got there or who they are. Together, they work to make a life for themselves while trapped within four large doors--the Maze. The doors open every morning and close at sundown. These walls they live within change constantly, but there's a pattern to them that the "maze runners" have discovered. Those designated runners venture into the maze every day in order to map it, find a pattern to its workings, and ultimately to find a way to escape. Life in the Glade would otherwise be peaceful and quiet, other than the biomechanical creatures that come out of the maze and kill some of them. Each of these beetles has the word "WICKED" stamped on it. None of them know what it means. Newt is one of the most beloved leaders of the group.

One day, a teenage boy arrives in the Glade, and he's not alone. A girl--the first--emerges with him. The boy is dubbed Thomas, and his curiosity and need to understand what's happening is without limit. When he's the first to survive a night in the maze, several of them agree to support his quest to find a way out, including Newt.

The second book continues where the first left off. Having escaped the maze was only the beginning of understanding. WICKED is a militant organization, and the survivors are forced to undergo "the Scorch Trials"--crossing a barren wasteland populated with humans being consumed by an infection (the Flare) that pretty much makes them zombies. In this series, zombies are called cranks.

The third book sees the group become prisoners of WICKED. They learn that WICKED's goal has been to find a cure for the Flare--to that end, using those with natural resistance to it, namely children, as test subjects. The friends have heard of a resistance movement fighting WICKED, and it may be their only hope for survival.

All three of these initial books were made into faithful movie adaptations that were as enjoyable as the books themselves were. Despite finding myself embarrassed by some of the silly language the boys came up with while living in the Glade, I can find no fault with any of these stories. Standout characters were Newt, Thomas, and Chuck in the first book, Newt and Thomas in the second, and Brenda in the third.

The trilogy was followed with a book called The Kill Order, which was a prequel story, showing what happened in the world leading up to the Flare and how WICKED conceived its diabolical plans to discover a cure using their youth, morality be damned.

A fifth book was released later, and it was another prequel, set between the events of The Kill Order and The Maze Runner. The primary focus of the book is on the relations between the Gladers before Thomas was sent to them. I kind of got out of the series after the third book and so never read the two prequels, though I do plan to seek them out and read them sooner or later. However, when the novella "Crank Palace" was released, I did get back into it because Newt was a favorite character of mine, and this is his story, taking place during the events of The Death Cure. Within that story, Newt had contracted the Flare and had to leave his friends because it was the only way to protect them from himself. What happened to him after that as he tried to make amends for what he considered his sins is contained in this little book. I'd like to tell you I loved it, but honestly it just didn't quite have the same intrigue as the previous three books, not even with Newt as the lead character. It was good, just not great, and I'm not sure the story really needed to be told. Even without the novella, I'd already assumed everything he did with these pages was what he intended to do when he left the group.

In the process of researching for this review, I found out that the author wrote what might be deemed a spin-off series called Maze Cutter. The first book with the same name is set 73 years after the events of The Death Cure. Thomas and the others immune to the Flare are sent to an island, where they and their descendants find a new life. Then one day a woman shows up in a boat and tells them the rest of civilization hasn't fared so well. The opposite, in fact. Another corporation with crazy scientists and hidden agendas has risen and threatens the future. The islanders feel compelled to help. There are two books available with a third (and final) on the way soon. I intend to pick them up at the first available opportunity and see what's happening in this intriguing world.

  

Ultimately, I recommend this series as some of the best young adult dystopian fiction available, especially when it comes to zombie and apocalypse stories. The twists and turns are constant, and you never know what the next surprise might be from one page to the next. Each story is filled with characters worth rooting for--and worth allowing them the chance to explain the decisions they've made. Given that I had such trouble putting the first three books down, I think it's time to get back into the series and catch up with the new offerings.

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/

Misunderstood Archaisms

Confronted with yet another stretch of several rainy days in a row, I'm reminded of the passage in the New Testament that illustrates divine impartiality with the statement that God sends rain equally on the just and unjust. We residents of the often waterlogged east coast of North America could be inclined to think the rain falls as a punishment, as in this humorous verse:

"The rain it raineth every day

Upon the just and unjust fella,

But more upon the just because

The unjust hath the just's umbrella."

On the contrary, though, in the arid Middle East of the original quotation rain comes as a welcome gift.

We often hear about people morally "walking the straight and narrow." In the King James version of the Bible, Jesus' remark actually says that on the path to life "strait is the gate and narrow is the way." "Strait" means "tight," as in "straitjacket" (NOT straightjacket). And when you think about it in the context of the original quote, does a straight gate make much sense?

Nowadays the vast majority of educated people probably know Juliet isn't asking about Romeo's location when she says, "Wherefore art thou Romeo?" "Wherefore" means "why," a counterpart to "therefore." She's asking him to go by some other name instead of the one given by the family hers has a feud with.

The medieval expression "passing fair" sounds odd to us, like faint praise. Dorothy Parker wrote a sardonic poem on this topic that ends, "If minus D be passing, she is passing fair." Doubtless a brilliant writer such as Parker actually knew "passing" in this phrase is short for "surpassing"; a passing fair lady would have been a stunning beauty.

Mondegreens, misheard song lyrics, fall into a related but separate category. There's the probably apocryphal case of the child who named a teddy bear Gladly after the alleged title character of the hymn "Gladly, the Cross-Eyed Bear." I've often suspected many children, hearing the chorus of a favorite Advent song about the angel Gabriel's visit to the Virgin Mary, "Most highly favored Lady, gloria," may wonder why Jesus' mother is being called Gloria instead of Mary. Not a song, but church-related: One of our children once asked me whether "salvation" meant "wine." After all, the server offering the chalice at the Communion rail often recites, "The blood of Christ, the cup of salvation." Back to songs, after innumerable exposures to Creedence Clearwater Revival's lyric, "There's a bad moon on the rise," I still can't cure myself of hearing it as "bad moon on the right" (despite the implausibly political implication). WIth the mumbling way they deliver the line, "rise" really sounds like "right" even if I strain my ears.

Creative misinterpretations can be used to good effect in science fiction. For instance, in a STAR TREK episode the Enterprise discovers a planet with the rather silly premise that their societies evolved from a world identical to Cold War-era Earth, right down to the language they misread in their sacred document. (Maybe the Enterprise slipped into a parallel universe and didn't notice?) I once read a story of which I remember nothing except that a distant-future nation was named Tizathee, after their post-apocalyptic interpretation of "My country, Tizathee, sweet land of liberty." And in Jacqueline Lichtenberg's Sime-Gen series, the remains of Ancient highways are called "eyeways," because people assume they're named for the straight view of the landscape they offer.

Margaret L. Carter

Carter's Crypt.

Controlling the Assault...

Do you sometimes see emails that appear to have come from yourself or your author name? Only when you hover your cursor over your name do you see that the email address is actually from an alphanumeric soup of a name.

According to legal blogger and expert in internet marketing, telecommunications and sweepstakes law David O. Klein of Klein Moynihan Turco LLP, email marketing is back with a vengeance (because telemarketing and text message marketing have become too risky under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act or TCPA since recipients of the unwanted texts may sue and win ... but only if they have gone further than to enroll in the government's do not call list).  Apparently, one now has to take the call and tell them to not call again.

For deceptive and misleading emails, the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003 applies. They call it CAN-SPAM, rather than CtAoN-SPaMA. I could not resist that!

David O. Klein explains it all very well.

https://kleinmoynihan.com/email-marketing-is-back/

They are not allowed to use false names in the From, To, or Subject lines, etc, but apparently, all one can do is Unsubscribe and then one is "opted-out" within a week or so, unless one lives in California in which case, one might have much more redress.

If you are thinking of promoting your writing with an email campaign, you might do well to check out the CAN-SPAM Act, or study David O Klein's website.

Getting your attention by taking your name in vain might not rise to the level of impersonation fraud if only you see it, but All About Advertising Law firm Venable LLP  has a mildly interesting article relating to deep fakes in advertising and rule-making in the comment stage.

https://www.allaboutadvertisinglaw.com/2024/02/impersonation-rulemaking-ftc-takes-steps-to-tackle-ai.html#page=1

Credit to the legal bloggers Leonard L. Gordon, Michael A. Munoz, and Ellis C. McKennie III. Also, my apologies for the faint praise. 

All the best,

Rowena Cherry 

SPACE SNARK™ 

http://www.spacesnark.com/  

http://www.rowenacherry.com

EPIC Award winner, Friend of ePublishing...

 

Karen S. Wiesner: The Hit List: Young Adult Series Favorites {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer

The Hit List: Young Adult Series Favorites

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer

by Karen S. Wiesner

In the first half of the 2000s, Young Adult series were all the rage, dominating the attention of teenagers and adults alike. Several that became household topics at the height of their popularity, enjoying fame as both book and movie series, seem to have fallen by the wayside since. Even still, I find many of those unique tales are well worth returning to for a fresh perspective. Over the next month or two, I thought I'd revisit a few series that would make any hit list of past favorites.

Although this series has been around a long time and, if people wanted to read it, they probably already have, in fairness, I'm including this disclaimer because some of the entries in the series that follow the first four might be unfamiliar to readers who may want to read them first: Warning! Spoilers ahead!

I resisted this paranormal series much longer than everyone else. I'm not sure why. I do remember for most of the years I'd lived in a town where almost no one reads. I was one of the very few. I wondered how the library survived. Given that, unfathomably I began seeing people reading these massive books in public around town, as if they simply couldn't be parted from them while devouring the stories. So I gave in. I quickly realized I was indeed missing something, and I spend mere days finishing all four books, though I can't say I loved the series from start to finish. The first one was the jewel in the crown and for the first half of Book 4, I thought the magic might return, but it never actually did.

By all rights, I think I should have liked teenage Bella. She's clumsy, a loner, drawn to odd things, never quite fits in anywhere, and she's the responsible, mature one especially compared to her mother. That she was a caretaker was right up my alley. Yet I never could quite get myself to like her, in large part because she starts out as an intriguing, unique character and turns into someone who seems to disintegrate rather pathetically whenever disaster struck. And it often did in this series.

I could completely understand why Bella felt drawn to Edward, a vampire. I even liked Jacob, who becomes a werewolf. It was a very cool concept. But when the author decided to make Bella fall in love with Edward and Jacob (though Bella ultimately--like me--came down on Team Edward), I found myself repelled. Edward wanted to love Bella for her lifetime. Though he would grieve when she died and he'd have to go on without her, he absolutely did not want to make her into a vampire. In the end, he agreed to it, but never willingly and he didn't actually go through with until there was no choice--Bella would have died otherwise. Jacob went all rage-wolf about the thought of Bella becoming a vampire because she would change. Not once was I convinced he cared what her opinion was about the whole thing. I found Jacob selfish and controlling. It was hard for me to like him when he decided he was in the best position to decide what Bella should do with her own life. But he ended up coming over to their side when he bonded with Bella and Edward's very strange, powerful child in a definitive way that meant he became her life-long protector, to the death.

The threat in the series was the Volturi, who made the laws for all vampires. This was an interesting, tense conflict, especially after Bella became a vampire. Ultimately, the four-book saga ended on a satisfying note. The movie adaptations were faithful. Kristen Stewart was about the only real problem I had with any of the installments. Something about the actress in all her films is off-putting to me. I wasn't crazy about Bella in the books and having Stewart playing her only compounded my issues. 

Also included in the series (though maybe it shouldn't be) is a novella, detailing basically little more than the title: a short second life of Bree Tanner, a newborn vampire who came and went, disturbing tragedy, 'nuff said. No, literally, the title was all we really needed. I'm sorry to say that I found this novella nothing short of painful to read. 

Unfortunately, tragedy didn't end there. To coincide with the tenth anniversary of the series, the publisher released a staggering, 400-page reimagining of the initial story with Edward and Bella's genders swapped as Edythe and Beau. I tried, I really tried, to read this but I died a little with each subsequent page. I never finished it. There are simply some things that should never be done, kind of like the whole Frankenstein debacle, and this is certainly one of them.

I remember when the Twilight Saga was at its pinnacle of popularity, someone illegally released a version of the first book written by the author in the perspective of Edward Cullen instead of Bella. I never felt right about reading it when it was available that way--in a forbidden way. So I never read it, but when Midnight Sun was officially released as a legit book in its own right, I tried to read it. I thought I'd love it because I loved him in Bella's point of view. Instead, Edward came off as the most frightening kind of psycho--and a vampire to boot. I never finished it because the Edward I'd come to love in the original books would have been ashamed for anyone to see him in this disgraceful way. I couldn't do that to him. I slammed shut the book, and it's stayed sealed ever since.

After Midnight Sun came out in 2022, the author announced she'd outlined two new Twilight novels. She planned on working on them after she'd completed an original book first (presumably The Chemist, released in November 2016). As of this review, nothing Twilight Saga related has appeared on the horizon.

Ultimately, I recommend this series, mainly for the first book and the first half of Breaking Dawn. Would I read anything new in the series? Probably, especially if it is actually something new, not shocking character swaps or alternate viewpoints, or not-short-enough tragedies that simply shouldn't be told. I give the author kudos most of all for a really cool concept that, though many tried, no one else managed to duplicate in terms of execution and success.

Next week, I'll review another favorite YA series published in the early 2000s.

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/

Intermediaries on the Internet

Another post by Cory Doctorow about how good platforms go bad and, by extension, how the internet goes bad:

Intermediation

Why didn't the internet, as promised, "disintermediate the world"? Because in many situations we NEED "middlemen." Doctorow cites publishing as an example. While some authors self-publish and accomplish all the steps of the process themselves or directly pay others to do them (such as cover artists and freelance editors), most of us prefer to have someone else handle those tasks. And even the totally independent self-publishers typically need platforms such as Amazon, Draft2Digital, etc. to sell their work; very few earn money solely by hand-selling their books one by one, like the eccentric wordsmith Doctorow describes in his essay.

"The internet did disintermediate a hell of a lot of intermediaries –- that is, 'middlemen' –- but then it created a bunch more of these middlemen, who coalesced into a handful of gatekeepers." The gatekeepers, as he sees it, are the problem. Online sales of almost anything we might want or need on a single, convenient website is a service most customers value. The problem arises when a giant internet retailer locks out its competitors and/or restricts what customers and third-party sellers can do with the products. We don't hate intermediaries as such, according to Doctorow; we hate "powerful intermediaries." His solution -- for governments to enforce competition-supportive laws.

While I can't deny monopolies are generally a bad thing, except in public service spheres such as utilities and roads, I also highly value the convenience of being able to buy almost anything from Amazon, a website that remembers my address, past purchases, and payment methods and that has been reliably trustworthy with that information so far, as well as fast and efficient. Moreover, I like the capacity to sell my self-published e-books on a site that most potential readers probably use regularly. I love knowing I can find almost any book ever published, a cherished fantasy of mine in my pre-internet childhood and youth. I'd have a hard time getting along without Amazon if it vanished. Yet doubtless the abuses of which Doctorow accuses it are real, too.

As for one area in which powerful middlemen exploit their near-monopoly to perpetrate blatant ripoffs: In the Maryland General Assembly's current session, they're considering a law to forbid companies such as Ticketmaster from buying up most of the tickets for a high-demand event and reselling them at extortionate prices, among other protective measures:

Ticket-Scalping Bill

Despite such abuses, I endorse Doctorow's conclusion that, overall, "A world with intermediaries is a better world." In past centuries, people "in trade," who at first glance seem to add no value to products they profit from through their own middleman activities, used to be scorned by the upper class and regarded with suspicion by their customers. (We encounter the stereotype of the cheating miller in Chaucer's CANTERBURY TALES.) But what would we do without them?

Margaret L. Carter

Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.

Trademarks, Keywords, And Bother

Some superstars get to trademark a word and buy themselves trouble, and others have to persevere for many years before their brand and image is shielded. 

As far as I know, no one has trademarked "Begotten" (if you noticed my text link), but I believe that the chorus of that hymn and the lyrics of many others contain the word "evermore".

Writers may remember extreme concerns a few years ago when either a publisher or a best selling author appeared to attempt to trademark a term which was widely used by most romance novelists. In fact, at least as of a review in 2017 on FindLaw, publishers and novelists may trademark a book title or the name of a series.

Legal blogger for Business.com, Sean Peak wrote a fascinating article about six trademark disputes over famous words.

https://www.business.com/articles/5-trademark-cases-and-what-you-should-learn-from-them/

Lawyer and legal blogger  Monifa Hall of the GreenspoonMarder LLP Intellectual Property blog describes the heroic saga of how it took Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson until very recently to acquire full ownership rights to “The Rock” trademark. One of many fine points she makes is:

"Johnson’s proactive approach to trademarking “The Rock” demonstrates the importance of taking decisive steps to protect valuable assets from potential infringement or misappropriation"

https://www.gmlaw.com/news/can-you-smell-what-the-rock-is-trademarking-a-look-at-ip-protection/

Meanwhile, legal influencer Igor Demcak of the trademark lawyers group Tratmatm has written two interesting blogs that are well worth reading.

One is about trademarked keywords, and the pitfalls of using other peoples' words, especially on Amazon.

https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=6ef78412-5971-4977-a3ff-0982b5dc70b9

https://www.tramatm.com/blog/category/ecommerce/trademarked-keywords-on-amazon-understanding-usage-guidelines

For a relatively unknown vendor (debut author, for instance), it is tempting to get noticed and to show up when readers search for specific words by using the names of more famous authors or books or series. Indeed, and as Igor Demcak says,

 "The use of appropriate and well-researched keywords can lead to higher visibility, more clicks, and ultimately, increased sales."

The bother comes when one chooses inappropriate or shoddily researched keywords. 

Igor explains Amazon's policy, and then discusses the risks of trademark infringement, which might include their product being removed, their account being suspended or closed, and legal action taken by the trademark owners.

His list of What-To-Dos before using a powerful keyword is essential reading for authors who want to avoid bother and heartache... or worse.

The other blog by Igor Demcak that I wish to recommend today concerns trademark bullying.

https://www.tramatm.com/blog/category/legal/trademark-bullying-recognizing-and-responding-to-aggressive-enforcement

It's a What-To-Do if you used a trademarked word in your promotion, and face overly aggressive enforcement.

He writes:

"One of the defining features of trademark bullying is the imbalance of power between the parties involved. Typically, the bully is a large corporation or well-established entity with significant financial resources and legal firepower, while the target may be a small business, entrepreneur, or even a non-profit organization. In many cases, the mere threat of litigation is enough to coerce the weaker party into compliance, regardless of the validity of the trademark claim."

Igor goes on to describe some interesting real-world cases where a trademark owner overstepped, but the legal process was cripplingly expensive for the little guy, and also to offer good advice for persons who feel that they are being bullied unreasonably.

One of many tips, which is a pain to follow, but should be done by any serious business person not only in trademark disputes, but anything business-related is:

"Document Everything: Keep detailed records of all communications, including cease-and-desist letters, emails, and phone conversations. Document instances of abusive behavior or unreasonable demands, as this information may be useful in defending against future legal action or filing counterclaims."

All the best,

Rowena Cherry 

SPACE SNARK™ 

http://www.spacesnark.com/   

http://www.rowenacherry.com

EPIC Award winner, Friend of ePublishing for Crazy Tuesday