{Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: Leech by Hiron Ennes by Karen S. Wiesner

 

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: Leech by Hiron Ennes

by Karen S. Wiesner

 

 

Be aware that there may be spoilers in this review. 

I picked up Leech by Hiron Ennes at a used bookstore and bought it because 1) it was in the science fiction/horror section, 2) it sounded like a combination of genres I love and the back cover blurb definitely appealed, and 3) I liked the intriguing cover, which, by the way, my wastewater treatment manager husband immediately said, tongue in cheek, "Look, a BOD bottle--but what's that weird, black gunk coming out of it?" 

I barely know where to start with this review. I've never before read a book quite like Leech, which was published in 2022 and was the debut novel by the author, who works in the field of medicine. Leech runs the gamut when it comes to genre classification: Gothic, Victorian era literature, historical, science fiction, horror, medical mystery, speculative and post-apocalyptic fiction are some of the fitting categories, along with two others that may also (but I'm not quite sure) qualify: steampunk and body horror. In the case of the latter, I've only heard of such a thing in relation to Caitlin Starling, an author I really like who's also a narrative designer that creates art exhibitions. These could be considered (by the squeamish like myself) body horror. 

The back cover blurb barely seems adequate to cover what takes places in this unusual novel. But maybe that's the best place to start, with a posting of the blurb on the book. This reveals to us what the author and publisher intended to give away freely about the major themes in the story. 

Meet the cure for the human disease. 

In an isolated chateau, as far north as north goes, the baron’s doctor has died. The doctor’s replacement has a mystery to solve: discovering how the Institute lost track of one of its many bodies. 

For hundreds of years the Interprovincial Medical Institute has grown by taking root in young minds and shaping them into doctors, replacing every human practitioner of medicine. The Institute is here to help humanity, to cure and to cut, to cradle and protect the species from the apocalyptic horrors their ancestors unleashed. 

In the frozen north, the Institute's body will discover a competitor for its rung at the top of the evolutionary ladder. A parasite is spreading through the baron's castle, already a dark pit of secrets, lies, violence, and fear. The two will make war on the battlefield of the body. Whichever wins, humanity will lose again. 

There are strongly overt clues running all through this blurb as to what the underlying plot is, but it's not really something that's realized fully until the reader is well into the novel--something I'll talk about again soon. 

I instantly liked this story when I started reading it because it has evocative depictions of the Victorian era--the picturesque setting (in this case, a desolate one filled with frigid, imposing mountains, dense forests, and a ruin of a "castle"); the genteel manners and mannerisms practiced by all with the classes of society always firmly occupying their proper places; the quiet, subtle, eerie, and insidious sense that absolutely nothing is as it seems on the surface. In fact, one of the things I liked most in those beginning chapters was how much the main character (who isn't specifically named through most of the story--it's written in first person point-of-view) reminded me of Jonathan Harker, a new solicitor, traveling to Eastern Europe to meet with his very first client. Leech takes place mainly in Verdira, located in a remote, frozen stronghold where wheatrock--an extremely valuable commodity used for many different things--is mined. 

What the back cover blurb plainly hints at but doesn't firmly verify for most of first two-thirds of the novel is that the pathologist the Institute has sent to investigate the death of the previous one is in fact a hive-mind body host of a parasite that's replaced all medical practitioners in existence in the past five-hundred years since it established predominance over living creatures. This very same parasite was in part responsible for most human beings being transformed into mutated states while some other, unspecified (but hinted at being caused by a "{galaxy?} flying machine") physical disaster turned the world's oceans acid, shattered the moon, and created feral machines called ventigeaux ("orphans of biotechnology", as the author describes them). 

Most of the characters in the book were transformed by that parasite in one way or another from mechanic hearts, to vestigial tails to Verdira's Baron being kept alive mainly through arcane machinery. The author intended it to be the norm in this world for regular patients to display "unconventional physical attributes" such as "a mechanical limb or a migratory birthmark or a literal doppelganger". 

In this feudal society, while the Institute handles all medical matters, powerful barons run local areas. In addition to the misery-inducing Baron who rules over Verdira and doesn't have a kind word for anyone living in the crumbling chateau with him are his family and servants. His grown son Didier cares nothing about the lost miners and numerous massacres that have and are taking place in Verdira so long as the precious wheatrock is capable of being mined to contribute to their ongoing wealth. His wife drinks but never escapes the fact that she is, sadly, little more than a breeder. Her only worth is in producing heirs. And she knows it. Due to the mutations from the pathogen, she's suffered a long series of stillborn births. Her only surviving progenies are twin girls creepily described as "A tangle of dark hair…two small bodies sprouting like stems from its middle." Additionally, there's the tragic houseboy, Èmile, the last survivor of genocide against indigenous cave and mountain dwellers. 

While the back cover blurb and the writing itself were almost blatant about touting the "symbiont" parasite that's running the medical show in this world, it wasn't immediately apparent what exactly was taking place in the story as I read through the first two-thirds. It took me that long to make all the necessary connections to comprehend that I was reading a book that was in the point of view of a pathogen for most of that time. (Guess having been in the POV of a dinosaur in another book I read isn't as odd as I formerly thought compared to this.) Only later in the story, when the previous owner of the host body re-exerted her (or them-) self and emerged despite the controlling parasite inhabiting the Institute's hive-mind also being there, did it become clear that the true horror of the story was that the main character in the host body had come to realize what had happened to her or them. At the same time, the hive-mind of that parasite had identified a brand-new parasite called Pseudomycota that killed the former doctor's host body and infected nearly everyone in Verdira. 

Stated in an interview on the BookPage website as the author's main influence for writing Leech are "…the stories science can tell us about our own cells. … Deep in our mitochondria lives a strand of DNA…an essential piece of our cellular network without which we would die. …Scientists…propose it is the genome of a foreign organism that hitched a ride inside us back when we were single-celled. It’s been sitting there ever since, perpetuating itself. … Does it care about me, or does it only care about my reproductive success? … You stay awake so many nights thinking about stuff like that, and eventually you write Leech." I found this to be one of the most unique premises I've ever heard for a story. It's part of why I found it so tantalizing as I tried to piece together the tapestry of what was happening. 

It's a brilliant story that was well-written…up until the last bit of the book, where the narration shifts from hive-mind parasite to former host-body consciousness. While this does make sense in the theme of the story, the end made for a lot of curse words strung together with poor grammar in an almost too modern tone of voice that I don't believe fit the previous Victorian style. Or maybe that was the point. I also felt like the book dragged on too long near the middle. Firmer editing in both these situations wouldn't have been remiss. 

Beyond that, the unfortunate side effect of keeping readers in the dark about the basic scenario of the story is that, when details are finally given to fill in the many, many gaps that'd been deliberately left hanging earlier in the story, now suddenly readers are overwhelmed, smothered, even crushed beneath the weight of it all. I found the last third of the book very hard to process, and quite honestly, I didn't understand the end scene one iota. It almost seemed to imply that one of the characters turned into a werewolf or a dog, like the ones he cared for at the chateau (gulp! a ventigeaux???). I wasn't entirely sure, and I could be completely off about that. 

In reflecting after I finished reading the book and then allowed myself to research it so I could figure out all the things that seemed foggy while I was reading, I asked myself if I actually liked the story. My answer is kind of the same answer as I would give for Never Let Me Go written by the absolutely brilliant author Kazuo Ishiguro. You can read Margaret Carter's review of the book here on Alien Romances Blog: https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2023/01/clones-as-organ-donors.html. Ishiguro is the same writer who gave us The Remains of the Day, which will probably always be in my top ten of favorite novels. When I read Never Let Me Go, I felt like I was missing a vital piece of the puzzle--the one in fact that would give everything else there focus an intense meaning. Without it, nothing made sense. I had flashes of feeling like I understood what was going on in the story while reading it, but nothing cohesive, nothing strong enough to help me bridge the gap. When I finished the book and then, again, allowed myself to research it, I found myself deeply and irrevocably disappointed. If the author had given me one crucial bit of information, I would have not only liked the book I would have loved it. Instead, I felt disgruntled by the lack of clarification that should have been given within the book--in my opinion, as early as possible. Without it, I had no sense of cohesion or resolution, and I felt cheated. I was left angry enough to not read another Ishiguro book to this day. I know, sad. I've decided this manner of not quite finishing a book in a way that brings everything full circle isn't really my cup of tea when it comes to reading. 

In a similar but nowhere near as drastic way, Leech kind of gave me everything other than the illuminating key to understanding the whole book until the very end, at which point I did eventually get most of what was needed for clarity and closure. Nevertheless, I did feel that a search for deeper explanations to bring everything together was needed even then. Unfortunately, a lot of the websites that I found information about Leech saw this as an allegorical tale. Like Tolkien, I distrust and abhor allegory, and I try not to include it in any of the books I write. So I passed over all that without reading much, not wanting or even being willing to read "real world parallels" into a fictional story. I do recommend Leech, especially for those who love speculative horror set in the backdrop of Victorian-era-like literature. 

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/

RavenCon 17 (April 2024)

Last weekend, my husband, our daughter, and I attended RavenCon near Richmond, Virginia. Here's the convention's website. Information about this year's con is still up.

RavenCon

Guests of honor were editor Ellen Datlow and author Ursula Vernon, aka T. Kingfisher. Since she's one of my favorite writers, I was thrilled when I learned she'd be there. Her reading consisted of excerpts from a new "Sworn Soldier" novel -- sequel to WHAT MOVES THE DEAD and WHAT FEASTS AT NIGHT, yay! -- and a novel about an angel and a demon teaming up to solve a mystery in a small village. (She mentioned her dismay when the GOOD OMENS series premiered, after she was well into the book.) I watched part of her interview later, fascinating background information about the origins of her writing career.

I appeared on panels about Writing Believable Characters and Geeks Parenting Geeks. The latter especially was a lot of fun, the whole session filled with memories and anecdotes about introducing our children to the worlds of fantasy, SF, and horror, plus the works our kids turned us on to. My husband took part in discussions on Writing with a Partner and Writing a Series. Together we appeared in "How Will Religion Change in Space?" Well attended, that was lively and thought-provoking but slightly chaotic. In our opinion, the moderator opened the floor to questions too soon. Eager audience participation is always desirable, but people kept prematurely derailing topics in progress. I never did get to say much about Mary Doria Russell's THE SPARROW, one book I especially wanted to delve into, but anyway it was a worthwhile and memorable panel.

The most heavily attended session I watched, surprisingly, was a lecture with slides proposing that the folktale of "The Smith and the Devil" is the "world's oldest fairy tale." The room was packed, with people sitting on the floor and leaning against walls -- at 9 p.m. on Friday. An interesting late-night presentation I watched only part of was called "Ask a Necromancer," by a licensed mortician answering questions about her profession. On Sunday morning, a slide show about angel lore in myth, fiction, and film mentioned some works new to me that I may watch on video streaming. I brought up C. S. Lewis's Space Trilogy, strangely (from my viewpoint) omitted from her book list even though she cited several other things that sounded rather peripheral to the topic.

At the Saturday evening masquerade contest, even though I recognized hardly any of the costumes, I marveled at how impressively elaborate most were. Even the "cosplay showcase" of people who didn't enter the official competition featured many dazzling outfits. One I did recognize immediately -- the Queen of Hearts, complete with flamingo, with the equally regally dressed King of Hearts hovering in the background.

Fortunately for getting to events on time, the hotel restaurant offered buffets at all three meals on Saturday and breakfast on Sunday. Not so fortunately, we had to fend for ourselves at Friday dinner in the only food venue open, the bar. With the resulting crowd, we didn't get fed until half an hour after ordering, when the opening ceremony had already started. Aside from not being present for the self-introduction of guests, though, we didn't miss anything vital.

We drove there and back uneventfully. We arrived home on Sunday afternoon to find the house and the cats in good condition.

Margaret L. Carter

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

Sunshine and Unicorns

One has to be careful of unicorns. They may be the stuff of fantasy and fabulists, but like "black swans", they can also be understood in stock market terms. A unicorn company is valued at a billion dollars before it is launched on the stock exchange. A black swan is an event that almost no one saw coming.

In terms of advertising law and "truth in advertising", Sunshine and Unicorns could well the fair game and the stuff of puffery. 

Puffery is not illegal. Puffery is a claim that is so exaggerated that a reasonable person would not take it seriously. It's a bit like obscenity (except that obscenity is illegal) in that one knows it when one sees it.

The sun is generally accepted to rise out of the East, and not out of a cereal container, or container of pieces of fruit clearly supplemented with great deal of sugar as explained on a list of nutritional facts. Sunshine is a commmon metaphor for "happiness".

The legal influencers of the Global Advertising Lawyers Alliance (GALA) explain what is and is not puffery. Authors may extrapolate how far they can go in their own advertising, based on the lines that purveyors of so-called feel-good food may toe, but should not cross.

http://blog.galalaw.com/post/102j5hv/is-goodness-and-nutrition-a-claim-requiring-substantiation

If an advertising claim is vague and aspirational, it is puffery.

The legal bloggers of Crowell & Moring LLP discuss puffery and many parameters of lawful versus illegal (misleading) advertising in a helpful Q & A format.

https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=7f2682ea-a6cb-4e1d-b65b-75964f33decf

"In the United States, ‘puffery’ is generally viewed as exaggerated statements or empty superlatives that no reasonable consumer would rely upon. For example, ‘the best coffee ever’ functions as puffery because the statement is so subjective that no consumer expects it to be truthful."

Advertising can become problematic if it suggests something about a product that is not true, especially if it is demonstrably not true and a customer relies on the statement to make a purchase.

I extrapolate that it would be fine for me to claim that "Insufficient Mating Material" is the best book that I ever wrote for publication. That is obviously subjective, and I probably believe it.  

Disclaimer: if there is such a book as "How To Survive On A Deserted Island" I have never heard of it, I have never read it, and I intend no comparison with it except as an academic exercise in crossing the line of puffery... but if I were to write "Insufficient Mating Material is 'How To Survive On A Deserted Island' but with aliens and a lot of sex", I might cross a line. 

For much better advice, read the Crowell article by Amy Pauli, Dalton Hughes, Emily Kappers, Raija Horstman , Roy Abernathy, and Suzanne Giammalva which if full of insights and sound advice.  One striking point they make is that it is permissable to compare unlike products, but it might be considered disparaging to compare your work product with that of a named rival and claim that yours is better.

Even if you could prove that your work is better, it will be an expensive process and you could be spending your time writing your next best-seller (or not).

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: {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: The Way of the Drow Series by R. A. Salvatore by Karen S. Wiesner

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: The Way of the Drow Series by R. A. Salvatore

by Karen S. Wiesner

The Way of the Drow is just the latest in an ongoing series of novels written by R. A. Salvatore focused on one of the most iconic D&D characters ever created, Drizzt Do'Urden. I wrote a review of the first trilogy he was a central figure in previously on this blog (find it here: https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2023/07/book-review-dark-elf-trilogy-by-ra.html). The three books in The Way of the Drow were published between 2021 and 2023. In the previous series including Drizzt, Generations, a demon uprising was settled and two years of peace followed. Now rumblings from Menzoberranzan, where Drizzt was born, prove a civil war is in the making. Many of the drow are beginning to question the influence of Lolth, the Spider Queen. Drizzt, followed by his most faithful allies, can't stand on the sidelines if there's any chance the Underdark can be set free from the chaotic evil that's held them prisoners for as long as anyone can remember. Drizzt was the first to escape this place where absolutes rule without compromise. In a winner take all battle, the drow ranger is the only one who can lead the captives to freedom. Once again, the Realms will never the same again.

As usual, Salvatore's execution is flawless, and most of the characters that have been the most beloved in his Drizzt series are all here, joining the fight. Each book draws in the countless threads, tightens the noose, and distills into one epic battle.

I'll admit I didn't read the last Drizzt series, nor many of the ones that came before. I wasn't lost--I've read just enough that I recognized and knew most of the players and understood the places and events in this latest series installment.

I tend to get bogged down while reading these stories almost exclusively because the Drizzt's books are connected to a greater, larger, almost mind-blowingly expansive universe with Dungeons & Dragons and Forgotten Realms. Stories and places and characters (many created and written by countless other authors) fit into this setting in the form of books and games (board, card, video, and the kind that most people think of when D&D is spoken of), as well as movies. The 2023 Dungeons & Dragons movie Honor Among Thieves (which wasn't the first film adaptation--but was certainly one of the finest) made the whole franchise a bit more accessible for noobs. There's also talk of a live-action TV show in development that may include Drizzt. Instead of being a household name in die-hard gaming circles, the dark drow might finally become known by anyone who enjoys fantasy entertainment.

Whenever I read Salvatore's Drizzt's books, I can feel the weight of all that surrounds it pressing down on me. It's not the author's fault this happens, but when the characters in his books talk about past events, I can't help feeling a bit of dread because there's a whole world behind these references that's suffocating, considering how little I know about any of it. When I read Drizzt's books, I tend to dart in and out of them, worried that if I linger, the ceiling will shatter and the ponderous, tangential rest of it will crush me beyond recognition. It's a tremendous amount of pressure.

That said, fans won't be disappointed with this worthy installment in the Drizzt legacy.

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/

Pros and Cons of AI for Authors

Is AI good or bad for authors? AI (artificial intelligence) is such a broad term, and the technology included under its umbrella -- from little more than an enhanced variety of autocomplete to programs that almost appear to "think" -- is so diverse, that this question seems impossible to answer with a simple positive or negative. In this WRITER'S DIGEST article, Mike Trigg covers the most problematic and often discussed downsides, such as unauthorized use of written works for training generative AI, appropriation of copyrighted content without permission or payment, and the perceived market threat of AI-produced books. What he believes we should worry about most, however, is "discovery bias":

The Worst Is Yet to Come

How do potential audiences find creators' works? Through one form or another of advertising, changing as communication technologies advance. "AI will fundamentally change how we discover content," Trigg warns. Herein, he maintains, lies the greatest threat to authors. "In a future of AI-curated content, whose content do you think will be discoverable? Short answer: Whoever pays for that privilege." In this near-future scenario, "Rather than placing ads adjacent to Google search results or embedded in an Instagram feed, AI can just tell the user what to read, what to buy, what to do, without the pesky inconvenience of autonomous thought." Resulting feedback loops will lead to product recommendations, in books as in other commodities, that guide readers to content more and more similar to what they've purchased in the past. Niche markets will become progressively niche-er. "Discovery Bias will further concentrate the publishing industry into fewer and fewer bestselling authors -- the ones with the name recognition, publicity teams, and promotional budgets to generate a self-perpetuating consumption loop."

I'm not totally convinced the benefits will be restricted to bestselling authors. Mightn't lesser-known authors "similar" to the bestsellers in their subgenre also get a boost from the discovery process? But I can't deny the plausiblity of Trigg's warning.

His final paragraph offers hope, though. The unique gift of human authors, "crafting stories that are original, emotional, and compelling. . . .is still something that no technology can replicate."

Note the potential implications of "still," however.

For more on the pros and cons of cutting-edge artificial intelligence, you might want to get the AI-themed May/June 2024 issue of SKEPTICAL INQUIRER.

Margaret L. Carter

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

Oh BOI !

Maybe not everyone knows this, but if you have an LLC, for instance to protect yourself as an author in case you are sued for something you published, you have to file with FINCEN. That is the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network unit of the US Treasury. The form is BOI or Beneficial Ownership Information report.

Online filing can be attempted here: https://boiefiling.fincen.gov/fileboir

If your LLC has been set up for more than a year, you must file by December of 2024. If you set up the LLC this year, you have 90 days to file... or less. My lawyer told me it was 30 days.

The warnings tell you that in can take from 20 minutes to 650 minutes to complete your filing. It helps if you have your CP 575 G letter from when you set up your LLC.

You will also need an uploadable copy of your driver's license. The system accepts .pdfs.

If you have Adobe Reader, you can download an active form and work on it on your desktop or laptop and save it to make future adjustments without filling out the entire thing all over again. Otherwise, you can fill out the form online.

If you have an LLC, you probably have an EIN (Employer Identification Number). If you don't have one of those, you should get one. Then, you do not have to provide your social security number. You will still have to reveal your name and address, and driver's license information, but it could be worse.

It's just a terrible nuisance, but it has to be done, and you do not need a lawyer to do it for you!

All the best,

Rowena Cherry

Karen S. Wiesner: Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: Fantastic Beasts Original Screenplays by J.K. Rowling

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: Fantastic Beasts Original Screenplays by J.K. Rowling

by Karen S. Wiesner

Quite a few years ago, a trend started going around writing circles that was in direct opposition of everything I'd ever taught about going deep with characters. In this trend, writers were advised not to include more than basic information about main characters, allowing readers to fill in the blanks and make the characters whatever they want them to be. Can character development can be fluid enough to allow something like that without compromising everything vital in a story? In a word, no. 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. Readers are more likely to say "Sucks for you" to characters they can't invest in, let alone care about enough to root for. Ultimately, characters that have little or no impact on readers make for a quickly forgotten story.

Personally, I want a good balance of character and plot development in any story I invest myself in. With most of the new stuff coming out, I'm not getting that. 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.

I'm taking a risk here, reviewing a wonderful book series that was literally destroyed by politics, misunderstandings on both sides, and shockingly vicious social media squabbles. My excuse for going ahead with it is: 1) I don't believe anyone or anything should be censored, particularly books, and 2) if I resigned myself to only enjoying art (in whatever form it comes in) created by artists I actually agree with the political opinions and private lives and actions of, I might as well give up art although. While I unfortunately absorbed some of the controversy surrounding this series because it was impossible to avoid it altogether in using the internet and to live in a world where the people around you have very strong opinions, for the most part I've managed to separate myself from it. I love the world of Harry Potter so much, there was no way I was going to let differing opinions on a topic that had nothing to do with the stories keep me from reading, watching, and playing the games designed around this magical world. Just in case anyone wonders: The screenplay format wasn't a deterrent either. While it's not as rich as a novel, it worked.

Fantastic Beasts actually takes place well in advance of the Harry Potter series. Here, the famous or infamous, depending on your point-of-view, Hogwarts Headmaster Albus Dumbledore is a middle-age man. We knew about Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, the title of the first Fantastic Beasts screenplay and the movie that was made from it, because it was a textbook Harry and his classmates were using to study magical creatures. The author of the textbook was Magizoologist Newt Scamander, and that's the main character in the screenplays and films of the Fantastic Beasts series.

The first screenplay and movie took a little bit of time to grow on me because it was so drastically different. Set in the USA, New York, where the American division of wizards Magical Congress of the United States (MACUSA) is headquartered, the series includes a host of unlikely but compelling characters. Stories hinted at within Harry Potter come to life here--ones that I've always wanted to know more about--more than any, Dumbledore's history. Here, we get much more detail about his family life, his romantic liaison with infamous dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald (very tastefully done), the life changes that resulted from those experiences, and his role at Hogwarts.

Dumbledore, Credence, Newt, and his unlikely and initially reluctant sidekick, baker Jacob are strong, loveable characters with easy to emphasize with motivations and goals. Also of note is Queenie, a compelling secondary character with unique talents and a sweet, simple faith in love. Her sister Tina would have been another intriguing character, but her place in the story was upset after the first screenplay/movie--again, based on real-life politics that drastically and indelibly altered the series.

In the second installment, The Crimes of Grindelwald, we start to learn who Dumbledore's former boyfriend is, what he believes, and what motivates him to violently change the wizarding--and the No-Maj (non-magical) or Muggle world--forever. In the movie, Johnny Depp played the role of Grindelwald brilliantly. The third installment, The Secrets of Dumbledore, was written by Rowling with Steve Kloves, who wrote screenplays for seven of the Harry Potter films. The role of Grindelwald was later filled by another favorite actor of mine Mads Mikkelsen. {Damn you, social medium politics and controversy!}. In Secrets, Grindelwald's madness comes to a head. We learned a lot in the suspenseful, shocking story, some closure was provided, but not everything was tied up neatly in this screenplay/movie.

Originally, the Fantastic Beasts screenplays/films were supposed to be a trilogy, but even before the release of the third film, that grew. The final two installments were to "consist of a sequence of events that occurred between the years of 1926 and 1945", according to Rowling. Political strife and media controversy on multiple fronts had a deep impact on the future of the screenplays and films. By late 2022, the movie company had reported it "was not actively planning to continue the film series or to develop any films related to the Wizarding World franchise". A year later, the director David Yates offered a half-hearted "...at some point, we'll be back." Rowling and the producer hadn't weighed in at that point. I imagine the author was terrified to open her mouth about anything at that point. Not long later, Yates confirmed the franchise had been parked, development discontinued. So fans will just have to be satisfied with the endings provided in the third screenplay/movie.

It makes me very sad that hate, prejudice, and intolerance can cause such devastation even in an imaginary world, tainting beyond redemption something that started out so good.

You'll see more of my reviews for Oldie But Goodies that you might also find worth another read in the future.

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/

Becoming a Dark Lord/Lady

Is it possible to be a good Dark Lord (or Lady)? The term "good" in this context is ambiguous. It can mean competent, skilled at certain tasks, fit for his, her, or its purpose. Or it can mean morally and ethically virtuous. We could call Shakespeare's versions of Macbeth and Richard III "good characters," meaning they're well constructed, believable, and entertaining. But we wouldn't label them morally good. A character could be a good Dark Lord or Lady in the sense of a convincing example of a powerful villain (from the reader's viewpoint) or an expert in ruling villainously (within the fictional world). Could a dark ruler be morally good, though, or is that concept self-contradictory?

I recently read THE DARK LORD'S DAUGHTER, by Patricia C. Wrede. Fourteen-year-old Kayla is snatched from our world, along with her adoptive mother and brother, by a man who informs her she's the only child of the late Dark Lord of a realm reminiscent of the fantasy worlds in her brother's favorite movies and video games. To Kayla's dismay, everyone seriously expects her to deal with opposition and assert her power by exiling, torturing, or executing people on the slightest pretext. How can she hold her unwanted position (while working to learn enough magic to return herself and her family to Earth) without transforming into a villain? Surprisingly even to herself, she comes to care for some of the people under her nominal rule and can't just abandon them without trying to fix the more dysfunctional features of the lair and throne she has inherited.

THE DARK LORD'S DAUGHTER reminds me a bit of Ursula Vernon's CASTLE HANGNAIL, whose heroine, Molly, isn't drafted into her position but deliberately applies for it. She answers an ad seeking a wicked witch to take over a castle in need of a master or mistress. The minions of Castle Hangnail, desperate for someone to rule the estate so they won't lose their home, gradually warm to this twelve-year-old girl who does have magic but otherwise barely qualifies. To become the castle's permanent custodian, she has to check off a lists of achievements, including such tasks as smiting and blighting. Some people deserve a mild smiting, and blighting weeds in the herb garden qualifies as a dark action without crossing the line into true evil. Along those lines, Molly manages to fulfill the "wicked witch" role without becoming a bad person. Just when she's on the verge of approval as the official sorceress of Castle Hangnail, though, an unexpected visitor exposes the deception she perpetrated to get over the threshold in the first place -- but no more spoilers!

In case by any chance you've never read the Evil Overlord List, here's that exhaustive inventory of things a supervillain should never do:

Evil Overlord List

Margaret L. Carter

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

Santa's Mammogram

Why Santa Claus? Why a Mammogram, and not an MRI?

Obviously this is an extended metaphor, it might even qualify as an allegory. Santa Claus is a probably not real, he does not fly around the world in a reindeer-powered sleigh, and his progress on Christmas Eve is not accurately tracked by NOAA. NOAA does not track anything accurately, some might say.

Now, if Santa were a well-fed individual, subsisting on a circumpolar diet, with generous fat reserves in his chest, he might be susceptible to various cancers, including cancers traditionally associated with lady parts.

Santa has a problem, but he does not realize the extent of it. He feels that some thing is wrong. He is having hot flashes and violent temper tantrums, he has bouts of excessive weeping, and a pimple under his blouse that keeps erupting.

He has some free time, it is, after all, the slow part of his year; he has no urgent deliveries to make. So he goes for an unpleasant test. What he does not know, and what the technicians and scientists do not tell him is that, of the 1218 sensors in the machine, 365 of them don't work. That is 30%.

His mammogram looks rather like this, with the green bits being accurate reads, and the red clusters or dots being made-up data based on the surrounding areas.

Rather than repair the sensors, or invest in a new machine, the scientists simply calculate what the missing images ought to show, based on an average of the data shown from sensors fractions of an inch on either side of the dark area. Santa's problem might be existentially worse than the radiologist's reading suggests, or he might have much less of a problem. 

What a great plot for a science fiction novel, if one were simply to extrapolate the scenario to something more important, such as a long distance assessment of whether or not Mars is habitable, or what lurks in the alleged water under the alleged ice on Europa, the so-called ice moon of Jupiter!

You would not believe that such a situation could be tolerated in a health care context, or in the arena of high level global policy making, but Katie Spence has reported on allegations by certified consulting meteorologist Lt. Col. John Shewchuk that data from non-existent temperature stations is informing our national obsession with flatulence (by the way, ants methane emissions are worse than cow farts, but almost no one talks about ants) and much more.

Moreover, if bugs fart copiously, why are we being encouraged to eat bugs instead of beef? 

For edification and fun, I highly recommend an internet seach of bug farts. There are insects that use their flatus to stun and disable their prey, and beetles that --if swallowed whole-- can produce a fart deadly enough to make their predator retch them out to freedom.

All the best,

Rowena Cherry 

SPACE SNARK™  

http://www.spacesnark.com/   

http://www.rowenacherry.com

 

Karen S. Wiesner: Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: The Club Dumas by Arturo Pérez-Reverte

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: The Club Dumas by Arturo Pérez-Reverte

by Karen S. Wiesner

Quite a few years ago, a trend started going around writing circles that was in direct opposition of everything I'd ever taught about going deep with characters. In this trend, writers were advised not to include more than basic information about main characters, allowing readers to fill in the blanks and make the characters whatever they want them to be. Can character development can be fluid enough to allow something like that without compromising everything vital in a story? In a word, no. 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. Readers are more likely to say "Sucks for you" to characters they can't invest in, let alone care about enough to root for. Ultimately, characters that have little or no impact on readers make for a quickly forgotten story.

Personally, I want a good balance of character and plot development in any story I invest myself in. With most of the new stuff coming out, I'm not getting that. 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.

Most people know about this book under its other title in a very different format: In 1999, a highly recommended horror film directed and produced by Roman Polanski was released titled The Ninth Gate, starring Johnny Depp and Lena Olin, who both give brilliant performances. The 1993 novel was beautifully written by Arturo Pérez-Reverte, set in the world of antiquarian booksellers--a topic the author apparently hadn't gotten enough of in his 1990 work The Flanders Panel.

Hired to authenticate a rare manuscript Lucas Corso, a book dealer, soon finds himself led on a harrowing investigation in search of copies of a fictional rare book known (in English) as Of the Nine Doors of the Kingdom of Shadows. The author was burned at the stake, given that the book is said to contain instructions for summoning the devil. Corso is thwarted in his journey, as you might expect, by devil worshippers, obsessed bibliophiles, a horny femme fatale with an ulterior motive, and an obscure woman who actually seems to be helping him but may have an agenda of her own if she is what she suggests--a fallen angel who'd wandered for millennia looking for him. Corso finds multiple copies of the book, none of them exact matches. Some of the plates bear the initials "L.F." and those form a complete set of nine without duplications. Corso realizes that, together, the nine illustrations are the summoning ritual--however, one is a forgery. But which one?

From start to finish, this one is a thrill-ride of suspense and fascination, from the details included for forging a 17-century text, to the unfathomable obsessions of book collectors and the lengths they're willing to go to to obtain their crown jewel, all the way to the unexpected life of a book dealer willing to go to hell (maybe literally) and back all on the quest of extraordinary literary discovery. You can't go wrong with this book or the movie. It might be a good time to give either a replay.

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/

Art Versus Life

A work of art (specifically, literature, including poetry such as song lyrics) does not necessarily reveal the life or personality of the artist. Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers didn't make a habit of committing murders. Stephen King has probably never met a vampire or an extradimensional shapeshifter, and although he incorporated his near-fatal traffic accident into the Dark Tower series, I doubt he actually encountered his gunslinger Roland in person. Robert Bloch, reputed to have said he had the heart of a small boy -- in a jar on his desk -- was one of the nicest people I ever met. As Mercedes Lackey has commented on Quora, she doesn't keep a herd of magical white horses in her yard. Despite the preface to THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS, it seems very unlikely that C. S. Lewis actually intercepted a bundle of correspondence between two demons. And, as a vampire specialist, I could go on at length (but I won't) about the literary-critical tendency to analyze DRACULA as a source for secrets about Bram Stoker's alleged psychological hangups.

C. S. Lewis labeled the practice of trying to discover a writer's background, character, or beliefs from his or her work "the personal heresy." Elsewhere, writing about Milton, he cautioned against thinking we can find out how Milton "really" felt about his blindness by reading PARADISE LOST or any of his other poetry.

The Personal Heresy

An article by hip-hop musician Keven Liles cautions against analyzing songs in this way and condemning singers based on the contents of their music, with lyrics "being presented as literal confessions in courtrooms across America":

Art Is Not Evidence

Some musicians and other artists have been convicted of crimes on the basis of words or images in their works. Liles urges passage of a law to protect creators' First Amendment rights in this regard, with narrowly defined "common-sense" exceptions to be applied if there's concrete evidence of a direct, factual connection between a particular work and a specific criminal act.

This kind of confusion between art and life is why I'm deeply suspicious of child pornography laws that would criminalize the broad category of "depicting" children in sexual situations. A description or drawing/painting of an imaginary child in such a situation, however revolting it may be, does no direct real-world harm. Interpreted loosely or capriciously, that kind of law could be read to ban a novel such as LOLITA. Would you really trust a fanatical book-banner or over-zealous prosecutor or judge to discern that the repulsive first-person narrator is thoroughly unreliable and that his self-serving claims about his abusive relationship with a preteen girl are MEANT to be disbelieved?

Many moons ago, in the pre-internet era, a friend of mine who wasn't a regular consumer of speculative fiction read my chapbook of horror-themed verse, DAYMARES FROM THE CRYPT. To my suprise, she expressed sincere worry about me for having such images in my head. Not being a habitual reader of the genre, she didn't recognize that the majority of stuff in the poems consisted of very conventional, widely known horror tropes. Even the more personal pieces had been filtered through the "lens" of creativity (as Liles puts it in his essay) to transmute the raw material into artifacts, not autobiography.

In case you'd like to check out these supposedly disturbing verse effusions, DAYMARES FROM THE CRYPT -- updated with a few later poems -- is available in a Kindle edition for only 99 cents, with a cool cover by Karen Wiesner:

Daymares

Margaret L. Carter

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

Clichés Don't Count

Clichés aren't copyrightable, and rightly so. It would be unjust and inconvenient to deprive the populace of the right to express an inoffensive idea (even an over-used and unoriginal idea) that has been in common use for generations.

Clichés are sayings that are true or may be received wisdom, but they have been repeated so often that there is no freshness or surprise to them. They are an intellectually lazy form of expression... unless twisted into the premise for a "fractured fairy tale", or a country song with clever "bent phrasing".

Examples of Fractured Fairy Tales for children. There are also adult fairy tales with a twist. Some are very fine indeed, but you will need to find links for yourself.

"He Stopped Loving Her Today" by George Jones is a fine example of a twisted Country trope or Country cliché.

One of my "go to" --or favorite-- legal blogs is the Incontestable Blog. This last week, legal blogger Jenevieve J. Maerker of  Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP discusses the lack of copyrightability of a word such as "rock star" in the titles of musical works.

https://www.finnegan.com/en/insights/blogs/incontestable/fifth-circuit-finds-speculation-and-cliches-not-enough-to-make-musician-plaintiff-a-copyright-rockstar.html#page=1

The Fifth Circuit, at least, will not count a similar song as presumptively copyright-infringing unless it meets the level of "strikingly similar", in other words, so similar that the similarities cannot be explained except by copying. More leeway would be given if the plaintiff could produce photographic proof that the defendents had access and opportunity. 

The Incontenstable article is well worth reading in full. I tried to avoid spilling all the beans.

I wonder how the Circuit would have reacted to "My Sweet Lord"/"He's So Fine".

Clichés that annoy me in television advertisements include "Game-changer". Watch out for the phrase. It suggests to me (but of course, I could be mistaken) that the same lazy-minded employee at an advertising company sold the same verbiage to different clients. 

Another entirely unnecessary cliche that distracts me so much that I have no idea what the product is, is the stopping of air-borne undesirables "in their tracks". So, here is my earworm:   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMDFv5m18Pw

If you are able to master the Comments process, I'd love to know if there are cliches in TV adverts that annoy you. It seems that, in order to comment, you may be "Anonymous", but if you are anon, the moderators have to approve your remarks as being specific to the topic and not blatant self promotion; or you can give your name and your url; or you can be logged in to a Google account.

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: A Stir of Echoes by Richard Matheson

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: A Stir of Echoes by Richard Matheson

by Karen S. Wiesner

Quite a few years ago, a trend started going around writing circles that was in direct opposition of everything I'd ever taught about going deep with characters. In this trend, writers were advised not to include more than basic information about main characters, allowing readers to fill in the blanks and make the characters whatever they want them to be. Can character development can be fluid enough to allow something like that without compromising everything vital in a story? In a word, no. 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. Readers are more likely to say "Sucks for you" to characters they can't invest in, let alone care about enough to root for. Ultimately, characters that have no impact on readers make for a quickly forgotten story.

Personally, I want a good balance of character and plot development the any story I invest myself in. With most of the new stuff coming out, I'm not getting that. 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.

A Stir of Echoes by Richard Matheson was published in 1958. It's hard to imagine this amazing supernatural horror is actually that old. Matheson probably needs no introduction to most readers. He's a legendary author and screenwriter of fantasy, horror, and science fiction, best known for I Am Legend, a personal favorite of mine.

In A Stir of Echoes, Tom Wallace's life is about as ordinary as it gets. I vividly remember reading it the first time and marveling at 1950s blasé parenting when Tom and his wife leave their new baby alone in the house and go across the street to party with the neighbors. Back then, baby monitors weren't really a thing. I suppose it wasn't a big deal back then. Everyone felt so safe. Not a world I can really imagine.

In any case, Tom is an ordinary man with an ordinary life until something weird happens to him and latent physic abilities are awakened inside him. Suddenly he's hearing what's going on in the minds of everyone, living and dead, around him. He finds himself the unwilling recipient of a message from beyond the grave.

I love one of the reviews of Matheson himself as the author (San Jose Mercury News): "Matheson is the master of paranoia--pitting a single man against unknown horrors, and examining his every slow twist in the wind." So accurate when it comes to the brilliance of this author.

The 1999 film adaptation with the name "Stir of Echoes" was fantastic, starring Kevin Bacon and providing the jump-out-at-you visuals that best serve this better-than-average ghost story. One of the other nice things I like so much about this story is that it's short. These days, everything you read is either really short or really long, almost no in-between. Sometimes you just want a streamlined, yet fully fleshed out story with vibrant characters that gives the reader no more and no less what's actually needed to tell a gripping tale. I highly recommend this classic, and the good news is you can probably immerse yourself in it and be out within a couple days.

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/

Technofeudalism

Cory Doctorow advances the position that capitalism isn't evolving into socialism (as classical Marxism predicted) but into a new form of feudalism:

Capitalists Hate Capitalism

His explanation of the difference between "rents" and "profits" is new information to me (being a bear of very little brain where economic theory is concerned, anyhow). "Rent" in the technical sense used by economists means "income derived from owning something that the capitalist needs in order to realize a profit." It's passive income, so to speak. In Doctorow's example, the manager of a coffee shop has to compete actively with other shops to attract labor and customers. The landlord who owns the building, though, receives money from rent no matter who occupies the space.

In these terms, a gigantic storefront such as Amazon, to which all the individual sellers pay rent, exemplifies "the contemporary business wisdom that prefers creating the platform to selling on the platform" -- "technofeudalism." Doctorow offers several examples, e.g., draconian noncompete agreements forced on employees, the expansion of IP rights to absurd degrees such as the author who attempted to own the word "cocky," and patent trolls whose "only product is lawsuits."

One related abuse he doesn't cover in this article but discusses elsewhere is the universal software marketing practice of not selling electronic products outright but "licensing" them. A "buyer" of a Kindle book, for instance, doesn't literally own it like a hard-copy book, for Amazon can remove the text from the customer's device at any point for any random reason. Granted, this probably doesn't happen often (I haven't experienced it), but the only way to avoid that risk would be to refrain from ever connecting that device to the internet again -- hardly practical.

By Doctorow's title, "Capitalists Hate Capitalism," he means, "They don’t want to be exposed to the risks entailed by competition, and feel the goad of that insecurity. They want monopolies, or platforms, or monopoly platforms." Unlike in many of his essays, in this one he doesn't suggest hypothetical remedies but simply describes a problematic situation.

Margaret L. Carter

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

Karen S. Wiesner: Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson

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 about going deep with characters, writers were told not to include more than basic information about main characters, allowing readers to fill in the blanks with their own details and thereby making the characters whatever they want them to be.

I don't believe character development can 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.

Personally, I want a good balance of character and plot development 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.

Before I Go To Sleep, published in 2011, was written by a then brand new author, S. J. (Steven Johnson) Watson, an audiologist for National Health Service, where he wrote the novel between shifts. The psychological thriller shot to the top of the bestseller lists and was made into a film in 2014 by Ridley Scott.

Of a technicality, there's nothing supernatural about this book enough to warrant it being reviewed on the Alien Romances Blog where the focus is "science fiction romance, futuristic, or paranormal romances in which at least one protagonist is an alien or of alien ancestry". However, there's something distinctly eerie about this tale--namely, the condition the main character Christine Lucas's is suffering from. Anterograde amnesia is absolutely chilling to me. It's very much as if an alien comes each night while the victim goes to sleep and steals everything he or she knows, feels, has experienced, and lived. I can't imagine anything else that could be worse. Good and bad memories, the myriad emotions associated with them, our areas of individual expertise and passions, and the experiences that make up the tapestry of our lives are vital to who and what we are. Without them, we're little more than lost--to everyone and everything. Imagine not knowing who you are, who you love, who loves you, what you've done, whether you're a good person, a bad, or something in-between. That, to me, is the very definition of horror.

In this novel, Christine wakes up every day of her life a blank slate and has to reconstruct her own identity--either through the one who tells her he's her husband, her son, her journal, or the doctor who's secretly helping her recover her memory. What makes this story so tense and alarming is that, in a situation like this, a person is forced to trust evidence that can so easily be manufactured as well as relying on the ones around them--despite the uncertainty that's constantly in the back of the mind. Do these individuals really know me, care about me, have my best interests at heart? Should I trust anything they say or do?

The first time I read this book long years ago, I gulped it like I was so hungry, I couldn't get enough. I'd never encountered anything like this before, didn't know the first thing about anterograde amnesia, and it was hard to imagine that it was something that could actually happen to someone. Frankly, it blew my mind. I also watched the movie, which was a close rendition of the story in the book, but I actually enjoyed it more, I think, because Nicole Kidman put in such a good performance as a frail but determined woman who's walking a short tightrope from one day to the next.

The second read recently wasn't quite as positively radical. This time around, I noticed that I found the writing style annoying and, cruel as it seems, it was very hard to actually like the heroine. Compassion, given her situation, was a given, but she acted in a way that set me on edge. The best way to say this is, I just would not have acted the way she did, if I was in that situation. Or at least I don't think I would. I hope to never know for sure. In any case, this story is a nail-biter and a page-turner that's very unique even in a sea of other psychologic thrillers. It's definitely worth a read, or a re-read.

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/