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On the Divided Readership for WORLD-MART

6/30/2012

9 Comments

 
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For as many people who have expressed that World-Mart has touched them in a positive way, just as many people have expressed anger—and even insinuated some kind of underlying political agenda—in response to the novel.  Take, for example, this review:

What a load of propaganda. This book is nothing more than the authors[sic] rant/social commentary on how she hates success[sic] for a business she disagrees with, loathing of America, and her undying love for the global warming theory. I believe that she had every right to express her views in her thinly disguised “novel”, I love the 1st Amendment. I hope she is not offended when I express my 1st Amendment rights as well when I say, "TOTAL CRAP!!!!!!!!!"

While my first response must be one of respect for varying opinions—and appreciation that this reader took the time to write what is very clearly an honest review—there really is no way to relay adequately my feelings about the above personal accusations.  Yes, World-Mart is a social commentary.  That is what dystopian literature is all about.  But I wrote this novel because I love my country and I write what I write because I feel a personal responsibility to do all I can to protect the liberty, freedom, and the enterprise I felt defined the United States throughout my childhood.  Not everyone will agree that we have a problem with corporate growth and the impact that has on our government and social hierarchy.  I can only hope my book will help people to raise some of those issues and get some progressive discussion going.

Another issue some readers have had has been in response to the book’s strict adherence to the classic dystopian model: government out of control + protagonists struggling against it = provocative but grim ending.  One reviewer writes about World-Mart:


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I can see the events of this book as really happening in our world. I truly hope they do not, but some of the events are taking place in our lives. It is, perhaps, the reality of the plot, the possibility that it is a tale of our future, that causes me to not like the story.

Well done.

Note: This is probably the most confused review I have ever tried to write! How can, "I didn't like it," and "well done" be in the same review?? That cannot make sense. But it does!

Do I recommend this book after writing the above? Yes.


This truly is the response what I was reaching for when I wrote World-Mart.  I’m grateful to the above reviewer for being so honest about how the book affected him/her.  On the opposite side of the coin, I can appreciate how some readers might become emotionally invested in the protagonists (despite my attempt to keep them as flat and complacent as any good Mart worker) and therefore might also find their fates disturbing.

To these people, I sincerely apologize.  I’m currently writing a book with a happy ending just for you.

I really do hope you enjoyed World-Mart, but I hope it also left a painfully sour taste in your mouth.  I hope it made you a little angry.  I hope some of the finer plot points it haunt you.  That is what a good dystopia is supposed to do.  If World-Mart struck an especially harsh chord with you—if the ending left you seething, for example—to you I say good.  Now what are you going to do about it to ensure it doesn’t actually come to pass?


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The Summer of Indie

6/24/2012

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As a part of the Scream Out Loud Summer of Indie Tour, I'm being featured today at Go Indie. 

Stop by to read the fun interview, and don't forget to check out the other Indie authors while you're there!

Here is the link.

My thanks for your support!

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Guest Author Ben Larken on Bad Guys and Back Stories

6/22/2012

1 Comment

 
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"Watering Down the Bad Guy"
by Ben Larken


The first time I saw The Exorcist I was thirteen years old. I saw it one night after my parents went to sleep and then spent the rest of the night lying awake in bed, staring at the ceiling in total horror. One question kept my eyelids from drooping—what if something else was staring back at me? The thing about the demon in the film (and later, when I read the book) was that it was so open to interpretation. It was a force of nature, as unexplainable as the path of a tornado, and the idea that beings might be out there that unpredictable and dangerous never left me.

Of course, in later movies they had to explain the demon, which made it infinitely less interesting. Movies in general have a problem lately with going back and explaining the bad guy. That’s why we have Star Wars episodes I through III, X-Men First Class, and even this summer’s Prometheus. A lot of people would argue that these are good movies, and they’re not wrong (well, not entirely—I’m looking at you, Episode I).

But I would argue that no matter how good the movie, the story ultimately does a disservice to a character that at first seemed totally original, totally iconic, and totally bad ass. Bringing such characters back to more innocent times only waters them down. Finding out the Alien started out as black goo didn’t exactly ignite my imagination. And I didn’t need to see Darth Vader as a petulant teen. Filling in the back story ourselves is something we do naturally. If the story and the characters are compelling, we’ll fill in the blanks.

In the case of my book Pillar’s Fall, I was telling the story of a detective investigating a series of murders that lead back to a boy and, more importantly, the demon who lives inside him. Like Exorcist, I knew I didn’t want to waste time on the demon’s background. I wanted his nightmarish actions to speak louder than his words. But when he did talk, I wanted it to be about where he was going, not where he’s been.
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Excerpt:

In the following scene, Detective Thomas Pillar is driving his van when he realizes he has company…

Tom looked behind him, terrified. 

Seth sat in one of the back seats, his legs crossed, his seatbelt fastened, his gaze cold and calculating. His clothes were crimson and damp. They clung to his body, dripping all over the floorboard.

For a moment Tom couldn’t draw enough air into his lungs to speak. His breathing was too shallow and he couldn’t force himself to react. The sight of the boy painted in blood had him petrified. When he finally found his voice it was nothing but a raspy murmur.

“Seth, what did you do?”

Seth smiled. “Do you really think this is Seth you’re talking to, after all you’ve seen? I expected more from you, Pillar.”

Tom jerked the wheel, and the van screeched into a U-turn. “We’re going back to the station.”

“No, we’re not,” Seth replied casually.

As they came out of the U-turn, Tom tried to right the steering wheel, and felt his spine freeze. He couldn’t right the steering wheel. The van was still turning. He stepped off of the gas pedal, but the van kept going. In fact, it sped up. The van made a complete circle before the steering wheel shifted on its own, and they continued down the street.

Tom turned around, looking at Seth. “What do you want from me? If you’re not Seth, who the hell are you?”

The boy’s eyes narrowed, his gaze as sharp as a hawk’s. “I’m the future,” he said and licked the blood from his lower lip. “I am the way to the Promised Land.”

Tom looked back at the road. They were still accelerating. Street lamps flashed by every few seconds. He glanced at the speedometer. On a forty-five speed limit street they were doing sixty-five. Seventy.

“The only thing blocking that way is you, Pillar,” Seth continued. 

“Stop the car, Seth.”

“The angels have disappeared. Even they are afraid of me. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men have left town. They left you, though. For some reason, they let you remain.”

“I said stop!”

Somewhere behind them a police siren sounded. Tom looked back to see a squad car spring into action on the street, its lights blazing. It was way back in the distance. Tom looked at the speedometer. Ninety-two. 

“You are the blockade of God,” Seth said, grinning. “What God does not realize is that you’re more of a speed bump. You will be out of my way soon. Maybe God intended you to be a great leader, and He is partially right. You will be famous, to be sure. But how will you be famous? Ahh, that’s the fun part.”

“Shit!” Tom cried as the van hit a highway on-ramp and turned left to enter it. The whole van tilted onto its right wheels, giving him a split second to realize he never buckled his seat belt in his rush to leave the precinct. The left wheels went airborne, and he toppled into the passenger seat. His shoulder hammered the passenger window, sending a web of cracks through the glass. Somehow he managed to look behind him and see Seth again, still sitting with his legs crossed, still looking tranquil in his sea of blood. The van rounded the corner completely and the left side crashed down, the shocks squealing painfully. Tom scrambled to get back in the driver’s seat.

“You’re going to be big all right,” Seth continued, his voice controlled and knowing. “You’re going to be the most famous serial killer of the new millennium.”

Tom hit the brake, but it didn’t depress. It was an immovable rock. He looked at the speedometer. One hundred and twelve. The air in his lungs went still as the Odyssey shot off the on-ramp. All four wheels left the pavement as the vehicle arced through the air and then slammed down again. A huge spray of sparks rained from the front as the headlights exploded from impact. Tom’s head bobbed on his shoulders and slapped the headrest.

“Damn you! Stop this thing!” Tom yelled, his voice hoarse and creaky. They were on the highway now, zooming in and out of lanes. Other cars honked as they sped past, but the shrill sound faded the moment it started. Tom saw the speedometer had stopped on one hundred and fifteen, the highest it could go. But they were still accelerating. He felt it in the G-force pinning his torso to the seat. Red taillights shot by in a firestorm. Tom thought of one last option.

“Criminologists will study your motives for years,” Seth speculated. “A man who got his taste to kill by dropping a child from a bridge, a man who shredded his victims to pieces, an evil man that no one will ever guess is innocent.”

Tom turned to Seth, his gun firmly in his grip and aimed at the boy. When he spoke again it was with authority instead of terror.

“You’re gonna stop the car. Right now.”

Seth arched an eyebrow, his blue eyes piercing. He shook his head like a disappointed parent. “Ah, Pillar,” he said. “I’ve told you all this and you never even asked why.” 

A surge in the air that made every hair on Tom’s body stand up. Something was wrong, more wrong than everything that came before, more wrong than the rising speed. The van had gone silent. Where squeals and screeches had blistered his ears a moment before, now there was nothing. Tom didn’t want to take his eyes off Seth, but he had to. He had to see what was happening. He slowly turned to the front, keeping the gun on Seth. And then his stomach fell to his knees. 

The van had lifted about a foot off the ground. It was still over the highway, still shooting in and out of traffic with an impossible deftness. There was no contact with the pavement. They were hovering. And the speed climbed. Every car they passed was a blur. The night sky was a tornado of dark shapes and splashes of light. Tom only made out one thing with any real definition. The Flux Bridge. They approached the suspension bridge like suicide bombers on the final pass. 

“God,” Tom whispered in awe, his eyes stuck on the coming structure. “How can this be happening?”

Seth’s voice was right in his ear. “Let’s just say the devil made me do it.” 
Author Links:
http://www.larkenbooks.com/
http://www.ll-publications.com/
1 Comment

FINDING POE Wins IBD Award!

6/21/2012

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What a lovely certificate I found in my inbox today!

Finding Poe won the IBD Award for June 21, 2012.

IBD writes: How much can delivering a letter, addressed to the late Edgar Allan Poe mean to you? For Karina it could be the difference between life and death, love & betrayal, the answer to her questions. Join her as she embarks on a journey to overcome fear, face madness and step into the peculiar & the magnificent. Finding Poe is a work of brilliance, written with affection & bound for the ‘must read’ list for horror fans.

More at IBD.

Thanks for reading!

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Author Interview: Selso Xisto

6/15/2012

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Today, as the final stop to the Particle Horizon Tour, I have an interview  with author Selso Xisto.

Selso Xisto graduated from King's College London longer ago than seems possible, and went on to work in kid's TV for over ten years making promos for Disney and Cartoon Network. Perhaps as an antidote he writes gritty, epic science fiction; forever his first love.

Surviving his ongoing obsession with fast motorbikes and flirtation with the underrated virtual worlds of videogames, he somehow found time to put to paper his long-gestating scifi epic. Influenced by the great space opera of Peter F Hamilton and Yokinobu Hoshino, as well as a lifetime of digesting the classics of Greg Bear and Arthur C Clarke, he lives and breathes SciFi in all its forms.

He lives in London with his wife and cat. Though the cat would phrase that quite differently.  


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Tell us a little about yourself, Selso.

I grew up obsessed with science fiction and read all the classics. Lacking the self-confidence to make a career of my writing, I worked for over 10 years in TV instead making promos for Disney and Cartoon Network; it’s a lot of fun and helps scratch the creative itch. The time eventually came though, that I had to scratch a lot harder, so my book is finally here!

Tell us about your book, Particle Horizon?

It deals with big questions of faith, what it is to be human and even the origin of the universe, but above all, I believe it’s a good old-fashioned adventure. It’s an ensemble piece, telling the story of a galactic conflict coming to a head from the points of view of three very different main characters.

Who do you think Particle Horizon would appeal to?

Anyone remotely like me! I tried my best to write my own favorite novel and included all the scenarios and characters and themes that pushed all my buttons. I’ve read and loved amazing writers like Peter F Hamilton, Greg Bear, Arthur C Clarke, Yokinobu Hoshino and many more, so I think I’ve been greatly influenced by them. If you like their work, there’s a good chance you’ll like mine.

Having said that, very early on I made a conscious decision to write a compelling story that would appeal to any reader of pretty much any genre. As much as I love Sci-Fi, it can often be heavily laden with quite alienating jargon and themes that can stop a lot of smart, tasteful people from enjoying these great stories. I hoped that my character-based story would appeal to anyone; whether I’ve succeeded or not, is for my readers to say!

Who is your favorite main character? Why?

I’d have to say Aja. In many ways, she has the least say in the grand outcome and events of the story, but I think she’s very much the ‘normal’ person caught up in the whirlwind of events around her. She doesn’t want to be there, she just wants to survive. She’s the one most readers would most easily associate with. She’s also a badass! Tough and not to be messed with, she’ll fight tooth and nail to protect her secret! I’m not telling you what that is though…

What literary character outside of Particle Horizon would Aja be friends with? Why?

Hmm… that’s a tough one. I think she’d probably stay far away from anyone involved in epic adventures or dangerous quests! She just wants to live her quiet life somewhere peaceful, allowed to believe in her own faith. She’d likely want to hang out with someone from a totally different and peaceful genre!

Who are some of your favorite authors?

The authors I named before! In particular Yokinobu Hoshino; he wrote an amazing manga series called ‘2001 nights’ which so few people have heard of and it makes me sad that every sci-fi fan in the world doesn’t have his collection on their shelves. Apart from the beautiful, stark artwork, he writes such haunting, epic stories; like Arthur C Clarke in a more modern tone.

What do you like to do when you aren't working or writing?

I must confess to having a love of videogames! I think non-gamers are really missing out on some of the most gorgeous and fascinating virtual worlds imagined. A good game like Bioshock or Halo can really transport you into a world that simply couldn’t be conjured up in a book or film. A solid, three-dimensional world you get to walk around in and explore, and some great, great stories too.

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About the novel:

From the blood and dust of New Jerusalem, the Legion of the LightBringer wages a galactic war against those who would replace their god. Now, the time has come for the Union of Free Worlds to make a stand. The front line is the idyllic asteroid world of Angelhaven, where the greatest mind in human history has discovered an elemental power with far-reaching implications. A power that both sides will do anything to harness.

Marine commander Gomes leads the crack Union task force. An unrelenting warrior driven by revenge and a need for answers, he hides a strange ability neither science nor religion can explain.

On the other side of the war, Aja is forced to fight for a cause she doesn't believe in to protect her own secret.

Caught between them is Una, a living machine who battles for her humanity as her world falls apart.

Outnumbered ten to one and stalked by a mysterious nemesis, all three will play a role in unraveling Angelhaven's enigma.

As the Legion invasion begins, unknown eyes watch with interest...

To finish off the tour with a bang, Selso Xisto is offering his debut novel, Particle Horizon, for free on Kindle during July 4th, 5th, and 6th. Click here to get your copy.  Thanks so much for stopping by!

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Novella Review: Trent Zelazny's BUTTERFLY POTION

6/13/2012

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Although it didn’t take me long to read this short but sweet work, I did have to think about the story for quite a while afterward. Perry is definitely the antihero with his alcoholism and blackouts, and the ending is fitting.

The use of stream of consciousness is artful, and I think it’s one of the aspects to this book that makes it stand out the most.  The grief, the love, and the loss Perry endures are all vivid and carefully laid out.  I rate this novel 4.5 stars.
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Learn more about Butterfly Potion and read other reviews for it at Goodreads. 
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Novella Review: Ian Woodhead’s INFECTED BODIES

6/13/2012

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Although this is the third book in its series, it is the first story I’ve read by Ian Woodhead.  With that said, this book works well on its own, with a decently rounded story arc, good characters and great prose.  The narration slides from gruesome to tongue-in-cheek witty, to dark and sexy with ease.

I felt that the zombies were well done.  The children were very creepy, as were the scenes with the human “pets”.  The ending felt a lot like slamming full-speed into a brick wall, although the Afterward helped me to be more forgiving of it.  If you like zombie survival horror, you should check out this series.  I give it four stars.
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New Just for You

6/12/2012

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Goodreads Quiz
Finding Poe
taken 5 times
10 questions
take quiz
This quiz is to test your knowledge of the Gothic horror novel, FINDING POE, as well as Poe-related trivia that is relevant to the book.

Feel confident about both? Take this intro-level quiz at Goodreads to find out!

Sneak peek: 
1. According to reports, what were Poe's dying words?

a.  What have I written?
b.  I see a raven!
c.  God help my soul!
d.  I knew this day would come!
I've been told by beta testers who I know are familiar with the book that this quiz is tough but fun!  Give it a go!
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Finding Poe's Voice

6/9/2012

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Those who have read FINDING POE already know that the prose is far from contemporary.  The first-person narrator is a young noblewoman, and it was only right that the language reflect that as much as possible without becoming disruptive.  More importantly: The story uses language similar to that which one might find in a Poe story, and the language and Poe-like use of imagery help to add his unique flavor of darkness and terror.

I'd love to know what readers have been thinking about the prose.  I was delighted the other day to read in horror author Byran Hall's 5-star Amazon review: "The style is very similar to old literary horror writers like Poe himself or HP Lovecraft, and I'll admit that it may not be for everyone just for that fact - today's modern style of writing is a bit different and some may go into this expecting something else."

Writing in such a way was an interesting undertaking for me, and shifting into just the right gear took time (and maybe a little ritualistic undertaking of his muse).  Technically speaking, I compare shifting style very closely to singing the harmony to a song.  Once you find one or two of the right notes, finding and singing a harmony line (which can be vastly different than the melody) can be fun and easy.  In writing that uses an altogether different voice, the key is looking at today's language as a melody and an author's shift in voice as one of many harmonies.  Finding it might be hard, but once a writer does find it, sticking with it is as easy as singing the harmony for the chorus to your favorite song.

I can't say enough how great it feels when someone catches important details such as that one.  Just as great is when someone catches the novel's big hook, one I have found only about half of its readers really to have done (and this surprises me).  However, it's very exciting when readers get the full depth of a book, because I do work hard to make my writing say something beyond the face value of its words.  I love being able to connect with other people on that level.

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Marrying Form and Content: Can an Author go too Far?

6/3/2012

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When writing WORLD-MART, I strove for an overtly mundane and cold world with the hope of fully immersing readers into the world-gone-corporate. It was part of a literary technique that works to connect to readers not only through what they read, but how they're reading it. That meant, however, also writing characters who could fit that cold, corporate model. I chose the Irwin family to be the epitome of mediocrity, a reflection of the world around them, which called for some creative use of characterization.  

With Shelley's character, I used her poetry to offer the readers a gauge into her ever-crumbling psyche.  If one compares the different poems she "shares" throughout the novel, obvious differences in style, language, and content give clues about her standing with the world. With that said, I'm curious about readers' responses to the progression (or in Shelley's case, regression) that occurs in Shelley's poetry through the course of the story.

Thanks for reading! 

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