New Author Spotlight: Lee Collins

New Author Spotlight is a series designed to introduce authors with up to 3 books in the different SF/F subgenres.

Today's spotlight shines on Lee Collins!

His debut novel is

• Dead of Winter published by Angry Robot books

Here's the cover copy...

Cora and her husband hunt things - things that shouldn''t exist. When the marshal of Leadville, Colorado, comes across a pair of mysterious deaths, he turns to Cora to find the creature responsible, but if Cora is to overcome the unnatural tide threatening to consume the small town, she must first confront her own tragic past as well as her present.

Check out his book if you like western fantasy novels, like these:

• Bloodlands by Christine Cody (Ace)
• Blood Riders by Michael P. Spradlin (Harper Voyager)
• A Book of Tongues by Gemma Files (ChiZine Publications)

Lego Harry Potter Castle

New Year's Day my husband and I worked on a fun project, putting together lego sets!  I loved lego as a kid but I've never done one of the big sets before.  Here's the kit I did.  When I opened the box there were... a lot of bags inside with lego.

I couldn't believe how intricate the set was.  There were so many small details, many of which were buried under other pieces of lego (there are items hidden in the cupboards in Dumbledore's room, for example, that you can't access without taking the things apart).  The kit came with a ton of characters (including 2 dementors, Scabbers, and Crookshanks), hanging snakes for the Slitherin common room, Sirius' face in the fire in the Griffendor common room, an issue of the Quibbler, owls for the owlry, potions bottles, a library with a locked book cabinet and more.

It was so much fun to put together, and now I have to be careful with it, as it's got so many tiny pieces that are trying to fall off.  Next time, I'm going to sit at a table, rather than the floor, because it took several hours to put together and I was hurting by the end of it.  

Book Review: The Kassa Gambit by M. C. Planck

Pros: great characterization including savant navigator, some philosophically interesting sections, plot has some good twists, vocab shifts to indicate future

Cons: romance is heavy handed, League is never properly explained, use of Earth words that others don't recognize, ending felt rushed

Prudence Falling, captain of a tramp freighter, is first on the scene after an alien attack on the rural planet Kassa.  When the Altair Prime fleet ship Launceston arrives hours later, information about the attack is still sketchy.  A League officer, Kyle Daspar, on the ship who's actually an anti-league operative working undercover, commandeers her ship while the Launceston goes for help.  Prudence, her crew and Kyle discover a downed alien craft while rescuing people from an arctic station.

After leaving Kassa, both Prudence and Kyle dig deeper into the mystery and discover that more's going on then just the discovery of aliens.

I requested this book from the publisher not realizing it was going to be a romance novel.  I expected a story about first alien contact either like Embassytown (dealing with an alien culture) or Forever War (where humans and aliens stay at war for decades).  What I got was a romance with a mystery side plot.

Now, while I'm not a fan of romance novels (where the focus is on the romance) I like romance as a plot thread in my novels, as long as it's handled well, being integral to the plot and an organic response to the character's actions.  The romance here was too heavy handed for my taste.  There were scenes when the characters thought about each other when other concerns should have been more important.

For example, after being on the ship together for an undocumented 16 hours helping people on Kassa, they discover the alien craft.  They're examining it when the following scene occurs.  It's important to know that though humans have travelled the universe for generations and populated numerous planets, this is the first alien contact.  Ever.  To set the scene, Prudence has put her hand inside the shattered cockpit and made a discovery.  She wants to see if Kyle comes to the same conclusion.

"What do you not feel?" she asked.

Dumbly, he shook his head.  What he wanted to feel was her hand in his, her warmth and smoothness.  But through the insulation of the suit, he couldn't feel anything at all.

"That's right.  No grav field." (p. 59)

All I could think when reading this was, you're the first humans to see an alien spaceship and you're thinking about touching her hand?!?  WTF?

The romance is strong at the beginning of the book, vanishes for quite a while and reappears towards the end.

The other thing that bothered me about the book was Kyle's paranoia.  Because he's an officer of the hated League while at the same time being secretly anti-league, he's always second guessing why people act as they do and if someone's out to kill him.  This becomes tedious to read in the opening chapters but quickly gets toned down as the plot picks up.  

One reason his constant waffling is annoying is because the League is never properly explained.  As the book progresses you discover it's not the government, nor is it an inter planetary trade alliance (both guesses I had).  It's obvious that the League has a lot of power, but it's not obvious what the power is from.  Since it impacts so much of the story, this is an important lapse.

   

So, what did the book do well?  Characters.  Romance aside, the characters were great.  Prudence is a strong woman who knows what she wants and makes difficult decisions.  Her crew is eclectic, and her navigator, Jorgun, is an idiot savant.  Jorgun quickly became my favourite character.  Prudence cares for him like a mother, but she also puts him in sunglasses and uses him for intimidation when going to dangerous ports (even though she knows it's an act and he's not capable of violence).

My one complaint about Prudence is that she's pretty full of herself when it comes to her attractiveness.  At one point, while thinking of Kyle, she thinks, "She'd never been around a man, single, married, or homosexual, that hadn't risked at least one bantering comment for her approval." (p. 68).  She's also pretty negative/dismissive towards two of the women she saves in the arctic, calling them 'the blond' and 'the smart one'.  

The setting and early action regarding the space mine were all done without info dumps, using character quirks to explain things to the reader without being reduced to 'as you know' sentences.  And while this definitely isn't hard SF, the science sounds plausible to a non-scientist reader.

The plot really picks up after they leave Kassa.  From that point it becomes an action/mystery novel, with both Kyle and Prudence discovering things about the aliens and politics on Altair.  I greatly enjoyed this part of the novel, and when the romance reentered the book at the end, it didn't bother me as much, though there were a few eye rolling moments.

The middle to end of the book I started underlining sections that I thought were philosophically interesting.  The idea of tech-ten, for example, was pretty cool.  I used to collect quotes from novels all the time and haven't found much of interest in the past few years.  So it was fun coming across so many thought provoking quotes.

The author used interesting vocabulary shifts to show how language changed over time.  I thought that added a touch of varitas to show that certain words were misunderstood or no longer understood at all.  However, there were several times when one character mentioned something, a pumpkin for example, and someone else wondered what it was.  It made me wonder why some words/expressions were still used if the objects weren't understood/no longer existed.  While it's possible one character is from a world that still grows pumpkins and the others aren't, it still felt like an oddity after the scenario happened several times.  Similarly, foreign words are used at times and understood though it appears all the worlds speak English.

Ultimately, it wasn't my kind of book though it was a quick read and there were several things I really enjoyed about the book.  The ending felt rushed but things were tied up well, with the mystery fully explained.  I loved Jorgun, and for his character alone I'd recommend the book, provided you like romance. 

Author Interview: Christopher Farnsworth

Novels:
Blood Oath
The President's Vampire
Red, White & Blood

Website: chrisfarnsworth.com

> What is the Nathaniel Cade series about? 

Nathaniel Cade is the President's Vampire. Turned into a blood-drinking abomination in 1867, he was bound by a special blood oath to serve and protect the President of the United States. For almost 150 years, he has served as the first response and last line of defense against the supernatural evils that lurk in the dark. He's partnered with a human handler, who deals with the daylight world for him. Right now, this is Zach Barrows, a young political operative who's yanked out of a promising career in the White House to work with Cade. Together, they face undying evil and shadowy conspiracies -- and sometimes, the scariest monsters are the ones that are human.

> The character Nathaniel Cade is based on an actual sailor who reportedly turned to vampirism in the late 1800s.  How did you hear about this story and why did you decide to write novels about him?

I read the original story in a book called THE PRESIDENT'S VAMPIREby Robert Damon Schneck. According to some newspaper accounts, President Andrew Johnson pardoned a man who allegedly killed two of his crew mates on a whaling vessel and drank their blood. He was sent to an asylum for the criminally insane, and no one really knows why Johnson spared him. But I kept wondering, what if that were just the cover story? What if the man really was a vampire? What would the President of the United States do with his own vampire? And the first book took off from there.

> What were some of your other literary and/or historical influences for Blood Oath?

I've always been fascinated by tales of the paranormal and the strange, so I got to use a lot of the weird lore I read as a kid: books by John A. Keel, Loren Coleman, and the father of high weirdness in America, Charles Fort. I also looked for inspiration from Stephen King, Mike Mignola (author of HELLBOY), and Trevanian, the author of what I still believe is the best spy novel written, SHIBUMI. And of course, comic books. I learned a lot at an early age from Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

> What made you want to be a writer?

Honestly, I have no other marketable skills. I knew I wanted to write when I was five years old, and most of my life since then has been one long attempt to figure out how to do that. I got a job as a reporter, and worked in journalism for years, then managed to sell a script, and finally turned one of my ideas into a novel. I'm an extremely lucky guy.

> If you could, would you change places with any of your characters?

Not a chance. Cade and Zach live in a world where the monsters are real, and there are very hungry things in the dark just waiting for their chance at us. They're burdened with the responsibility of keeping everyone else safe from unspeakable evil. They fight the War on Horror every day. It's not an easy job, and I wouldn't want it.

> Was Blood Oaththe first novel you wrote and how long did it take to write it?

BLOOD OATH was actually my fifth novel, but my first published. I wrote a terrible novel for my undergraduate degree, then tried to write a few more thrillers and sell them before I had any success with Cade. It took me about eight months to write, but I had some distractions in between, like buying a house and the birth of my first daughter.

> When and where do you write?

I try my best to treat writing just like any other job I've held. So I go to an office within walking distance of my home and sit at a desk for up to eight hours a day. Sometimes I don't accomplish anything more than Facebook updates. Other days, I can get twenty or thirty pages done. But I always put in the time. A friend of mine once said, "The only way to write it is to write it."

> What’s the best/worst thing about writing?

The best thing: when the words are just flowing, and everything is falling into place. It makes me feel as if I'm fluent and smart and actually good at this job. The worst: when that's not happening, and every thought I have seems like it should be handled with disinfectant and rubber gloves.

> What is something you didn’t know about the publishing industry before you had your first book published?

My experience had been in journalism and screenwriting, so I was pleasantly surprised to find how seriously the author is still taken in publishing. People listened to my opinions about my own work. That hadn't happened much before. In Hollywood or at a newspaper, the writer is just the first part of the process, then everyone else gets to tear up the story. In my experience, at least, my editors and publishers allowed me to decide how it would look in the final draft.

> Do you have any advice for hopeful authors?

I've said this before, but never be ashamed of your enthusiasms. I spent a lot of time writing what I thought other people wanted to read, and I only sold a book when I started writing what I wanted to read -- a completely insane story about a vampire secret agent working for the White House. Listen when people tell you things about your craft, about how you're telling the story, about presentation and plot and narrative devices. That criticism is valuable and important. But if someone tells you that no one else will ever want to read about your favorite thing -- well, they're wrong. If you love it, keep writing it until you find someone else who does, too.

> Any tips against writers block?

Don't let the blank screen terrify you. Find one detail and start from there. Just fill the page as best you can, and go back and dump whatever doesn't work later. But sit down and write, no matter what.

> How do you discipline yourself to write?

It's still fun. Even when it's work. And, as I said, I don't know what else I would do.

> How many rejection letters did you get for your first novel?

Dozens. I can remember walking to my mailbox every day, finding the rejections, and then trudging back to my apartment. It was important and useful. I learned how to take disappointment. It took me a while to realize that failure is the only way to learn. You have to try, over and over, and fall down a lot, on your way. It was not an easy lesson, and I still don't like repeating it. But it still holds true. As Salman Rushdie once wrote, you have to try again, and fail better the next time.

Blog Resolutions for 2013

My blog's going to undergo some changes this year.  I'm not sure of the extent of the changes yet, I figure I'll play things by ear.

The first real change is that I won't be contributing to SF Signal this year.  It's been a blast but I felt I needed to pare down my internet responsibilities.  I've got 2 blogs and I don't want to burn out the way other bloggers seem to be doing.  As a consequence of this, I'll only be doing one New Author Spotlight post a month, and it's going to be more relaxed in future (meaning I'll be able to post about authors for whom I've been unable to come up with comparison books - for example Kameron Hurley, whose Bel Dame series is so unique).  Depending on how things go, I may only do 1 author interview a month going forward as well.  We'll see about that.

In terms of reading, I've wanted to do this for a while and have not managed it yet but it's a new year so...  I'd like to read more non-fiction, specifically Medieval history books (with some Greek, Roman, Byzantine, etc. thrown in for fun).  I've started realizing just how much of my university education I've forgotten and I want to get back into my major.  And I've a few bookshelves of new and used history books I've picked up over the years that I haven't had time to read.  Last year I got a DVD course for Christmas called The Terror of History.  Being the procrastinator I am, I only opened it up in December, having just enough time to realize this was fantastic before I had to stop watching due to my work schedule.  Well, I bought a few more courses, since they're on sale, focusing on things I didn't study in school (as 30 minute lectures aren't in depth enough to teach me things I don't know already when it comes to my major).  Once I'm done with The Terror - and have read up on Hildegard von Bingen, Francis of Assisi, heretics and other topics of interests, I'll be starting The Other Side of History, which focuses on how the non-rich majority of people lived.  In other words, the sick, the poor, slaves, women, children, the old, etc. got by in several periods of ancient history up until - and including - the Middle Ages.  Depending on the interest of you - my readers - I'd love to share some of the things I learn from my studies here on the blog.  I may do a few historical posts and see how they're received.  I've got a ton of photos from historical sights I've visited that I could post about too...

I'd also like to continue catching up on older SF classics and broadening my knowledge base in that genre.  Looking at my stats from yesterday, I should add more horror and urban fantasy back into the mix too.

Since I've so many books I'd like to read, I won't be accepting any new book review requests this year. I may request a few from publishers (so you should get a few advanced reviews for new titles) but I'll be keeping those to an absolute minimum so I can catch up on sequels and backlist books.

Last year I managed more than a book a week.  While it was fun, it was also a lot of work and I want to have more time for creative endeavours (and housecleaning) so I'll likely pare that down as well.  I'm thinking one review every two weeks.  We'll see.  I'd planned the same thing last year and ended up reading about the same.

In terms of new content, I'm hoping to do more artist spotlights, maybe more small press spotlights and start commenting more on what's happening around the interwebs.  We shall see.

What reading resolutions do you have?

Looking Back - Recapping 2012

I've started keeping a list of all the books I read, so it's easier to reflect on the past year.  Note, not all the books I've read have had their reviews posted yet (I've got 6 rough draft/complete reviews on my laptop right now).

So, in 2012 I read 59 books, 2 of which were novellas, 2 'other' (a history book and a psychology book), and 3 collections.  While I did read some graphic novels, apparently I didn't record those so I'm not sure how many I actually read.

Here's the breakdown of the novels:

Science fiction 26
Fantasy 13
Urban Fantasy 3 (though I'll admit I was a bit loose with this category, I'll have to read more of them next year)
Horror 1 (huh, I will have to do better with that next year as well)
Teen 12
    (broken down as 8 SF, 2 F, 1 Horror and 1 other - so once you add the teen books I read 34 SF, 15 fantasy, and 2 horror)
Other 1 (historical fiction)

Gender wise, I read 34 33* books by men, 19 20 books by women and 4 books by a mix (3 collections and one novel with 2 authors)
(*I discovered an author I thought was male is really female.  Pseudonyms, got to love them.)

I read a lot of great books last year, making a top 10 list difficult, but I'll try one.  Here they are in the order in which I read them (as it's easier than trying to rank them by preference).  The links go to my reviews.

Mind Storm - K. M. Ruiz
The Man From Primrose Lane - James Renner
Alchemist of Souls - Anne Lyle
Partials - Dan Wells
Erebos - Ursula Poznanski
Forever War - Joe Haldeman
The Rook - Daniel O'Malley
The Death of Grass - John Christopher
Three Parts Dead - Max Gladstone
Reposession Mambo (aka Repo Man) - Eric Garcia
Kop - Warren Hammond
Knife Sworn - Mazarkis Williams
The Bridge - Jane Higgins (link goes to Indigo website as my review hasn't been published yet)

And you got 3 bonus books (because I don't feel like trying to weed 3 out).

All in all I fulfilled my goal to read more SF, specifically classic SF.  Tomorrow I'll post my reading/blog resolutions for 2013.

Science Fiction and Fantasy Novels Coming in January, 2013

Once again, these listings come from the Indigo Books website and reflect Canadian release dates, with the exception of the Carina books, which are from their site.

Hardcover:

Farside – Ben Bova

A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent – Marie Brennan

The Daylight War – Peter V. Brett

Cry Wolf – Patricia Briggs

Dreams and Shadows – C. R. Cargill

Trinity Rising – Elspeth Cooper

The Arena Man – Steve Englehart

Necessity's Child – Sharon Lee & Steve Miller

The Best of All Possible Worlds – Karen Lord

Firebrand – Gillian Philip

Elsewhens – Melanie Rawn

Sword Bound – Jennifer Roberson

Trade Paperback:

The Mad Scientist's Guide to World Domination – John Joseph Adams, Ed.

Countess Dracula – Guy Adams

Warhammer 40K: The Death of Antagonis – David Annandale

THe Departure – Neal Asher

Existence – David Brin

The Lord of Castle Black – Steven Brust

How Dark the World Becomes – Frank Chadwick

Projecting Tomorrow: Science Fiction and Popular Cinema – James Chapman

Ex-Heroes – Peter Clines

Warhammer: Van Horstmann – Ben Counter

Darkest Light – Hiromi Goto

Take Back Plenty – Colin Greenland

Six Heirs – Pierre Grimbert

The Inner City – Karen Heuler

Blood Therapy – Lynda Hilburn

Superheroes – Rich Horton, Ed.

Dead Space – Antony Johnston

Extinction Point – Paul Antony Jones

Froggy Style – J. A. Kazimer

The Apes of Wrath – Richard Klaw

The Human Front – Ken Macleod

Very Best of Barry N. Malzberg – Barry Malzberg

Warriors – George R. R. Martin

Emperor Mollust Versus the Sinister Brain – A. Lee Martinez

The Ship Who Searched – Anne McCaffrey & Mercedes Lackey

Between Two Thorns – Emma Newman

Yamanda Monogatari: Demon Hunter – Richard Parks

A Rising Thunder – David Weber

Fireblood – Jeff Wheeler

Amped – Daniel Wilson

Mass Market Paperback:

The Isis Collar – Cat Adams

Gideon's Angel – Clifford Beal

The Golden Age of Death – Amber Benson

Angels of Vengeance – John Birmingham

Dead Things – Stephen Blackmoore

Blackveil – Kristen Britain

Wards of Faerie – Terry Brooks

Forgotten Realms: Prophet of the Dead – Richard Lee Byers

Warhammer 40K: Path of the Incubus – Andy Chambers

Guardian of Night – Tony Daniel

Star Trek: Devil's Bargain – Tony Daniel

The Order of the Scales – Stephen Deas

The Burn Zone – James Decker

Mortal – Ted Dekker & Tosca Lee

The Road of Danger – David Drake

A Crown Imperiled – Raymond E. Feist 

Black City – Christina Henry

Hell To Pay – Matthew Hughes

Secrets of the Fire Sea – Stephen Hunt

Dragon Fate – E. E. Knight

Age of Voodoo – James Lovegrove

The Forerunner Factor – Andre Norton

Shadow Blizzard – Alexey Pehov

The Silent Dragon – Irene Radford

Star Wars: The Last Jedi – Michael Reaves

Dead Letter Day – Eileen Rendahl

Charon's Claw – R. A. Salvatore

Heart of Brass – Liesel Schwarz

Trickster – Jeff Somers

Black and Magic – James R. Tuck

Carina Press E-books:

Golden Triangle – David Bridger

Savage Angel – Stacy Gail

How Beauty Saved the Beast – Jax Garren

Dark Secrets – Shona Husk

Time Dancer – Inez Kelley

The Magic Mirror and the Seventh Dwarf – Tia Nevitt

Journey of Awakening – Shawna Thomas

Drynn – Steve Vera