The Insecure Writer's Support Group - June Edition

The Insecure Writer's Support Group in a once-monthly blog hop hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh. The idea is to provide authors with an avenue to share their doubts and concerns, and to offer one another encouragement and guidance. Every first Wednesday of the month we gather to connect with one another and share our insecurities.



My insecurity this month is entirely a vanity issue, but it does have far-reaching implications . . . and they are what, all too often, distract me from actually writing. It's all about names - real names, nicknames, and pen-names.



Under which name do I submit my manuscript?



To what name do I want to assign a legacy . . . be it good or bad?



Does the comfort of anonymity outweigh the pride of recognition?



Is it better to be freed from my inhibitions, or restrained within my better judgement?



Like I said, it's completely a vanity issue, but the implications and repercussions are forever. Part of me wants to publish under my real name and let friends, colleagues, family members do a double-take when they see the name on the shelves. I want them to wonder if it's really me, to buy it just in case it is, and then to reach out and let me know what they think. I want that recognition, that validation, and that acclaim.



On the other hand, part of me worries about what people might think. I wonder if they're going to read too much into the story or the characters and make assumptions about me. I don't want to have to face the awkward questions about why I wrote a character a certain way, why I adopted a certain theme . . . or just what the hell I was thinking when I wrote that!



For me, writing is an exercise in imagination, a complete and utter break from reality where I can tell whatever story I want, about whatever characters I want. I've written protagonists I would never want to meet in real life, and I've written villains that I take a guilty pleasure in admiring. I've written relationships that have completely shocked me, and I've written scenes that please me every time I reread them.



Yet, whenever I start thinking of the name issue, I find myself either becoming uncomfortably restrained, afraid to express what the story needs, or gleefully crossing all lines of good taste and propriety, simply because I can.



I keep telling myself to just finish the damn manuscript and think names later, but that little nagging doubt, that unanswerable question, seems to raise its head at the worst possible moments. One day I'm sure I'll get past it, make a decision, and then laugh at myself for every being so insecure . . . at least, I hope so. :)

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Waiting On Wednesday: Dark Currents by Jacqueline Carey

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.



This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

Dark Currents by Jacqueline Carey



Jacqueline Carey, New York Times bestselling author of the acclaimed Kushiel’s Legacy novels, presents an all-new world featuring a woman caught between the normal and paranormal worlds, while enforcing order in both. Introducing Daisy Johanssen, reluctant hell-spawn… 



The Midwestern resort town of Pemkowet boasts a diverse population: eccentric locals, wealthy summer people, and tourists by the busload; not to mention fairies, sprites, vampires, naiads, ogres and a whole host of eldritch folk, presided over by Hel, a reclusive Norse goddess. 



To Daisy Johanssen, fathered by an incubus and raised by a single mother, it’s home. And as Hel’s enforcer and the designated liaison to the Pemkowet Police Department, it’s up to her to ensure relations between the mundane and eldritch communities run smoothly. 



But when a young man from a nearby college drowns—and signs point to eldritch involvement—the town’s booming paranormal tourism trade is at stake. Teamed up with her childhood crush, Officer Cody Fairfax, a sexy werewolf on the down-low, Daisy must solve the crime—and keep a tight rein on the darker side of her nature. For if she’s ever tempted to invoke her demonic birthright, it could accidentally unleash nothing less than Armageddon. (October 2, 2012)





I'm not generally a huge fan of urban fantasy, but I do like Carey's style very much, so I'll definitely be giving this one a shot.

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GUEST POST: Dance, Monkey, Dance by Keira Michelle Telford

Inspiration: where do you get yours? I used to joke that I had a monkey who would dance for me when I was feeling creatively deadlocked. Of course, that’s not true. Monkeys have a tendency to throw their feces at you, and that’s just not something I need in my life right now. I already have an incontinent guinea pig, and there’s nothing particularly inspirational about that.



So, instead of employing a monkey to entertain me, I try to find inspiration in more every day things. Like: movies, TV, music, and books. Quite simply, appreciating the art of others inspires me to work on my own art—The SILVER Series: a ten-book, dystopian adventure series, chronicling the (fictional) life of Ella ‘Silver’ Cross.



I watch several movies a month, have a handful of TV must-sees always scheduled on my PVR, and I listen to music while I write. But since I spend so much of my time writing, I don’t get a lot of opportunity to read. Like many other writers I’ve spoken to, I don’t like to read while I’m in the midst of writing a book in case I become too influenced by the work. Despite that, over the years, I’ve acquired a few solid favorites. In no particular order, here are my top five:





Fyodor Dostoevsky – Crime & Punishment

Justifiable homicide is a central theme in this book, and it’s one that I’ve explored myself in The SILVER Series. It’s a tough read, I’ll admit. The language is formal, and won’t be to everyone’s taste, but it’s a well-spun tale of murder, guilt, and internal torment. Some of Silver’s experiences might well be compared to those of Raskolnikov, Crime & Punishment’s morally-distressed protagonist. In Acheron, Maydevine convinces Silver that murder can be justifiable. In The Lost & Damned, she puts that to the test when she sets her mind to kill the city’s corrupt Governor. In A New Age Dawns, she might just go too far.





Dante Alighieri – The Divine Comedy 

To be fair, Inferno is my favorite part of this book. I don’t care so much for Purgatory or Paradise. The nine circles of hell fascinate me. In fact, references to Inferno can be found scattered throughout my work, not least of which is in the title of my first novel—Acheron. The river of pain leads to hell, and after traversing it, Virgil leads Dante on a tour of hell’s nine circles: Limbo, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Anger, Heresy, Violence, Fraud, and Treachery. This latter circle, the deepest in hell and reserved for traitors, plays an ongoing—albeit subtle—part in my work. When we first meet Silver, she’s just been banished for treason. That makes her a traitor, and would relegate her to the ninth circle. Links back to this—and to Inferno in general—can be found in chapter headings, dialogue, and even in the book’s epigram. And no, that’s not a typo in Maydevine’s last line of dialogue at the end of chapter ten...





Emilie Autumn – The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls

A self-pressed, semi-autobiographical novel by the Victoriandustrial musician, Emilie Autumn. It’s kind of graphic and brutal in a here’s-my-bleeding-heart sort of way. It deals with issues like bi-polar disorder, suicide, self-harm, sexual abuse, and rape. It’s dark, gritty, and pulls no punches in its vivid depictions of mental illness. Emilie Autumn might not be the most sophisticated writer, but you won’t really notice the weaknesses in her punctuation because you’ll be too absorbed in the horrors of her life. The book is littered with song lyrics, diary excerpts, and pictures—illustrations by EA herself, and photographs. It’s a fascinating read, and you might be disturbed to learn just how little the mental health system has changed from the Victorian era up till now. And, in the end, that’s her point.





Richard Dawkins – The God Delusion

This is the only non-fiction entry on my list. What I love about Richard Dawkins, is that he explains science in a way that makes it palatable for the masses. Even a layperson is able to digest the science of evolution, natural selection, and other biological processes, through his detailed explanations of them. I love science, and I fail to understand how any person living in the modern age can refute it. And since science (particularly biology) plays a huge part in my work, I make it my business to read as many of these books as possible. I’m still struggling with string theory, though. And the concept of non-linear time is still a hard one for me to grasp. However, the instant I learned that a single electron can be in two places at the same time (bi-location), and that it’s scientifically plausible that, at any given moment, you are simultaneously everywhere you could possibly be... well, let’s just say that it opened up a whole new world of possibilities for the future of The SILVER Series. Quite literally.





Samuel Beckett – Waiting for Godot

I don’t know if this technically counts as a book, since it’s a play, but when I first found out about it, I read it in book format. I still have it on my bookshelf. It’s personal to me because it reminds me of a time in my life when I was living in rural Wales with my father. I was sixteen years old, and our daily life bore a striking resemblance to the perpetual routine of nothingness endured by Dede and Gogo on that desolate mountaintop. For me, Waiting for Godot perfectly encapsulates the futility of our existence. You can’t make sense of it, because there’s no sense to be made. It brings to my mind the last lines from The Rocky Horror Picture Show, written by Richard O’Brien: “And crawling on the planet’s face, some insects called the human race. Lost in time, and lost in space. And meaning.”.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Born and raised in Britain, Keira moved to British Columbia, Canada in 2006. She now shares a townhouse on the west coast with her husband and 9 guinea pigs, yes 9 guinea pigs.



Author of the post-apocalyptic romance novels called Silver.



The world might end, but love endures.



Visit Keira's websites at:

E-Mail: km_telford@yahoo.com

Website: www.keiramichelle.com

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ABOUT THE BOOK:

SILVER: Acheron (A River of Pain) by Keira Michelle Telford



Dishonorably discharged from the Hunter Division and banished for crimes she did not commit, Silver struggles to come to terms with her new prison-like surroundings: a segregated area of the city called the Fringe District, populated by murderers, thieves and rapists. 



Starving, and desperate for money, she reluctantly accepts the Police Division's invitation to enroll in a covert Bounty Hunter program: an initiative devised to infiltrate the criminal underworld of the Fringers, and to force the very worst warrant dodging law-breakers to meet their fate—death.



Unfortunately, Silver doesn't realize that the Police Division is about to up the ante. They need more than little snippets of information and arrests—they need someone to pull the trigger.



They need an executioner.

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Don't forget to check out the details of where Keira will be next.

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LAUNCH & GIVEAWAY: Kingdom by Anderson O’Donnell

Welcome to day one of Anderson O’Donnell’s “Kingdom” blog
tour!

First off, I want to thank each and every blogger who graciously
agreed to join the tour. And a special thank you to Hannah Richardson for
helping me organize this tour—she has been tremendous.

Now, about the tour itself: Beginning today, and running
through July 3rd, the Kingdom blog tour will feature reviews, interviews, guest
posts, giveaways, and a few other surprises—including an international
contest to win a Kindle Fire.

The blog tour is being conduced to promote Kingdom, a
dystopian, biopunk-thriller, and the first part of the Tiber City Trilogy.

Most people are familiar with the term “cyberpunk,” but
“biopunk” is harder to nail down. In many ways, biopunk is similar to the
cyberpunk genre, and shares many of the same themes and archetypes: the
dystopian future; the overreliance on technology; mega-corporations; a constant
and overwhelming flow of data; the anti-hero—these elements are integral parts
of both genres. And both genres are fueled, to some extent, by the sense of
rebellion and desire for individual freedom expressed by the original punk rock
revolution. But the main difference—the most important difference—is that while
cyberpunk focuses on invasive technological modification of the human body,
biopunk explores the dehumanizing consequences of biological modification, of
re-arranging our DNA in the pursuit of perfection.

And it’s these consequences that fuel the action in Kingdom.

Here’s a brief introduction to Kingdom: 

            In
a secret laboratory hidden under the desert, a covert bioengineering         project—codename “Exodus”—has discovered
the gene responsible for the             human
soul.

            Somewhere
in the neon sprawl outside the nation’s collapsing economic core,          a group of renegade monks are on the
verge of uncovering a secret that has        eluded
mankind for centuries.

            In
a glittering tower high above the urban decay, an ascendant U.S. Senator is           found dead—an apparent, yet
inexplicable, suicide.

            And
in the streets below, a young man races through an ultra modern            metropolis on the verge of a violent
revolution...closing in on the terrible             truth
behind Exodus—and one man’s dark vision for the future of mankind.

            Welcome
to Tiber City.

If you’re intrigued, you can grab a copy of Kingdom (paperback or Kindle format) over at Amazon. Or, if you’re still on the fence,
check out the first four chapters at my website, Tiber City Noir.

And, if you’re interested in entering the Tiber City Kindle
Fire Giveaway, you can enter the contest through the widget on the sites
hosting this tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks again for checking out the Kingdom blog tour.

Cheers,

Anderson

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Stacking The Shelves and Mailbox Monday

Stacking The Shelves is a new weekly meme being hosted by Tynga over at Tynga's Reviews. Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you've added to your shelves - physical and virtual, borrowed and bought. Mailbox Monday, meanwhile, is a similar meme being hosted by Sassy Brit at Alternate-Read.com this month (check out the Mailbox Monday blog to see who's hosting next month).

This weekend we went on a road trip to a few used bookstores we hadn't visited in a while. Managed to find a few hidden treasures that I'd been hunting for a while.

Beyond Rejection by Justin Leiber

Twilight of the Empire by Simon R. Green

Well of Darkness by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman

How about you . . . what did add to the shelves this week?

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TGIF - Feature & Follow Friday

Feature & Follow Friday is a blog hop that is designed to provide some much-appreciated exposure to the bloggers participating, and to expand their following. Hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read, each of whom feature a chosen blog for the week, it's an interesting way to get to know one another.

Question of the Week: You are a matchmaker — your goal, hook up two characters from two of your favorite books. Who would it be? How do you think it would go?



Yeah, I've got no clue on this one - I'm not now and have never been a matchmaker, so I can't even think of where to begin. I'd probably end up forcing a paring that is either uproariously funny, or completely inappropriate. :)



Parajunkee also hosts a Social Hop for Facebook and Twitter, which I regularly take part in. So, if you're one of those people who aren't on Blogger, or who just don't like Google Friend Connect, it's a great way to keep in touch and follow one another.

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TGIF is another blog hop designed to provide much-appreciated exposure to the bloggers participating, and to expand their following. Hosted by GReads, it's an interesting way to recap the week, pose a question, and find some exposure with a different audience.




Question of the Week: Issue Books: Which books have you found to be very rewarding when it comes to tackling tougher issues?



Wow, rough week for questions! I generally don't like "issue" books and tend to steer clear as soon as I realise that's where a book is headed. I read to be entertained, to be amazed, and to be amused - if I want to be preached at or hit over the head with a message, I'll watch a morning talk show. Actually, I doubt I'd ever watch one, but you get the idea. LOL

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eBook Review: 77 Days in September by Ray Gorham

I've always been a huge fan of end-of-the-world, apocalyptic thrillers. I'd like to say that Stephen King's The Stand is responsible, but it's actually Isaac Asimov's The Last Man on Earth anthology that sticks in my head as my first exposure to the subject. In fact, I still have the tattered old paperback sitting on my shelf today!



Anyway, I've read a lot of apocalyptic tales over the years, some of which I've quite enjoyed, and others which have fallen flat. Generally, I find that I tend to be drawn more to the 'epic' stories, the massive doorstoppers that explore every aspect of the disaster. However, the stories that often work the best, the ones that resonate the strongest and stick with me the longest, are the more intimate tales.



That the niche into which Ray Gorham's 77 Days in September falls. It starts with an 'epic' feel, bouncing around between characters and settings, but only to establish the facts of what's happening . . . and to remove all doubt as to the scope of what's happened. The story really gets going with a plane crash that rivals just about anything on screen in terms of excitement and drama. It's set up nicely, making us care about the characters involved, and then is played out extremely well.



Once we get beyond the plane crash, however, our scope slowly begins to narrow until we really get to the heart of the novel - Kyle's long walk home (across a hostile, desolate America) and his wife's struggle to believe in his return (in a small town with its own hostilities). It's a story telling device that works particularly well, allowing us to follow that most intimate of tales, the struggle for one man's survival against the most overwhelming odds, while at the same time granting us some perspective on the overall situation, through a small-town microcosm of America.



Kyle and Jennifer are both well-developed characters, loving spouses who are suddenly confronted with a physical separation that mirrors their emotional distance of the last few years. Neither knows whether the other is truly alive, and both are faced with temptations throughout their ordeal. Even if Kyle does reveal a few personality flaws along the way, it's entirely unrealistic to expect anybody to be a candidate for sainthood after having spent months walking across the country. The subplot of Jennifer's stalker is, perhaps, a bit too typical of the genre, but it's handled well . . . and sets up a final resolution that really puts the emotional cap on the story.



If I had one complaint about the novel, it's the way in which the political sub-plot seems to just fade away. There's a significant focus early on around one US Senator that seemed to have some potential, but just when I thought she was being left behind like the other victims, she resurfaces for an oddly-placed scene, only to be forgotten again - this time for good. I would have liked to see more of her story, or else not go back to her at all that last time, but it's my only real quibble.



This was an exciting, fast-paced, nicely detailed story. Gorham never goes over-the-top in his descriptions of the horrors and the gore, which makes the darker elements all the more effective. He balances the emotions of the situation well, contrasting fear with courage, despair with hope, and animal lust with human love. The few human interactions Kyle encounters on his journey are nicely balanced as well, driving home the fact that the odds are truly against him, but also recognizing the fact that there are good people in any situation.



Definitely recommended.

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