I may be preaching to the choir here, but
allow me to deliver my brief sermon anyhow. I won’t be passing the tithing
basket around at the end of it; in fact, I’ll be offering you, dear readers, an
incentive if you stick with me until the end.
If you follow this blog, it’s because you
enjoy reading my books and those of my co-bloggers, Laurie, Pippa and Greta.
You love reading SFR. Maybe you even write SFR yourself. I’m presuming you want
us to do well, and you want more books to read—not only more books from us, but
more books from our fellow SFR authors. More adventures in space, more aliens
and cyborgs and starship captains and brave scientists saving the galaxy. More
wild ideas and hot romance. More sexy covers and titles climbing the best
seller lists. More awards and recognition for SFR.
Well, you know, we’re doing our best to make
that happen. But we need your help. Not just your purchasing power. But your reviewing power.
Yes, I’m talking REVIEWS!
Okay, I can hear the groans from here—like I
just assigned you summer book reports. But for those of you who are not writers, let me explain why reviews
are important.
--Readers look at reviews to decide what
books to buy. Sorting out which of hundreds of titles are the good reads is not
an easy task. But if a book has earned five stars on Amazon or Goodreads, from
dozens of readers, then it’s surely worth your money.
--Amazon, in particular, uses the number of
reviews to determine whether to recommend a book to its customers. At each
ascending level of reviews—20, 30, 50, 100—the Amazon computer algorithm will
kick in, triggering an automatic response
to recommend the book to more readers. That encourages more sales, and more
reviews, and so on.
--Some writers don’t read their reviews, but
most do. I, for one, don’t write for myself; I write to communicate with my
readers. Reviews are one way I get feedback. Sometimes that feedback isn’t easy
to swallow, but for the most part it’s wonderful. Without reviews, I feel like
I’m sending a message out into a cold and lonely universe. Is anybody out there?
So, we need
those reviews. Of course, we need sales, too. But one feeds the other, and
without that engine of encouragement, many writers are deciding to just give
up. No more stories from them, their voices going silent.
I can hear you right now, saying, I don’t know how to write a review! I’m not
a writer! But that’s the easy part. Amazon only requires 20 words for a
review—or about three sentences. You don’t have to describe the plot or the
characters. You don’t have to be a critic. You just have to say, in three
sentences or so, what you liked about the book and why you think someone else
would like it. If you think some things could be improved, you can say that,
too (just be nice about it, please).
Need a kick in the pants to do it? Okay. I’m
offering a chance at a $25 Amazon gift card to anyone who will review any one
of my Interstellar Rescue books (Unchained Memory, Trouble in Mind or Fools Rush In) on Amazon or Goodreads
before Monday, August 14. Just post the link to your review either here or on
my Facebook page and
you’ll be entered to win. I’ll announce the winner on my page Monday, August 14
and again here next Friday, August 18.
I made a comment recently on Facebook, as I struggled with the action
in my latest book, that anyone who thinks that writing a book is easy
has rocks in their head. Perhaps I should have said anyone who thinks
writing a book is easy hasn't done it.
Some people, it seems, can churn out a book in a month or two, which keeps their fans fed. Barbara Cartland
wrote 723 books in a 75-year career, which is not much shy of ten books
a year (!). However, most of my author friends are nowhere near so
prolific. When I publish my current book, For the Greater Good, it will be the second this year, and really, the first (The Stuff of Legend) hardly counts because most of it was written last year.
I
wish the prose simply flowed from my writer's fingertips, but it
doesn't. I write, I stop to work out where the story goes from here, I
do some more writing, then I read back over what I wrote and fix the
typos and maybe the wording. By the time the story gets to my editor
I've probably edited it myself three or four times. Then I incorporate
my editor's suggestions. And then I'll go through it again.
When
I started off in the writing game, I did reasonably well, financially.
I'm not talking even midlist, but at least I got my costs back. That's
no longer true and I know I'm not the only author who has had serious
thoughts about giving it away. After all, if people don't read what we
write, what's the point?
If you want to encourage your
favorite Indie to keep writing, there are a couple of small things you
can do. The most powerful (unfortunately) is to write a review if you
enjoyed a book. It doesn't have to be much - just "I liked it". It's sad
but true that reviews drive vendor algorithms. Books without reviews
disappear into the rising tide of new books. (Also, it does give authors
a bit of encouragement to know someone enjoyed the result of their
hard work.) Apart from that, tell your friends. Nothing works as well as
word of mouth.
Meanwhile, the work on For the Greater Good is nearing its end.
Here's the blurb
A Human
settlement is destroyed and all signs point to an Yrmak raid as Imperial agents
Tian Axmar and Brent Walker scour the site for clues. One thing they never
expected to find was a survivor, a rare alien feline with unusual talents.
As
tensions between Humans and Yrmak ratchet to the point of no return, Tian and
Brent must bring all their cyborg skills to bear as they follow a dangerous
trail of deception and misdirection.
The
feline, now dubbed Puss and strongly bonded to Tian, holds the key to many of
the questions driving the investigation. Unfortunately, that bond drives a
wedge between Brent and Tian’s working relationship, leaving Brent with second
thoughts about his decision to become a cyborg.
As
the evidence unfolds, it becomes clear that a devious plot to incite an
interspecies war will strike at the very heart of the Empire. With lives at
risk, there's no time to waste. Racing against the clock, Brent, Tian, and Puss
must stop the planned carnage, and this time for Brent and Tian… it’s personal.
Summary from IMDb: "A dark force threatens Alpha, a vast metropolis and home to species from a thousand planets. Special operatives Valerian and Laureline must race to identify the marauding menace and safeguard not just Alpha, but the future of the universe." Warning: minor spoilers included. I'm going to start with the good points because sadly those won't take long...
What I liked
As expected, the visuals were glorious and detailed, and the action fairly nonstop. The start is a little slow but soon makes up for it and the information is important. The main alien race are definitely interesting and well fleshed out but a bit too Avatar-like. The hero and heroine take turns to rescue each other. The other alien races are interesting and intriguing, and I love the idea that our current ISS could expand to be so much more. There's a huge amount of fascinating tech and ideas including a multidimensional market place.
What I didn't like
The casting is appalling. From what I read pre-release Valerian and Laureline are meant to be older characters. Rather than trying to capture/cater to the YA crowd as they appear to have tried for, I think they would have done better with older and definitely more charismatic actors. Valerian looks like a 12yo who's missed several nights sleep and with the personality of one, and amazingly klutzy for a supposedly expert and experienced soldier, while Laureline flips from coldly efficient agent to ferociously jealous girlfriend in denial with annoyingly regular bouts of teenage eye-rolling in between at Valerian's adolescent behaviour. The reveal of the villain came as zero surprise, yet the general's supposed detective work failed to lead him to the commander's crime nor take precautions at the suspicious armed robots in tactical positions that refused to deactivate. The attempts at humour fall flat. The constant unnecessary diversions from the main plot to essentially sight-see some of the thousand planets plus the waste of Rihanna's character as a deus ex machina could/should have all been cut to improve the pace and stop distracting from the main plot. The cliche of the countdown being stopped at 0.01 isn't even the final spine-shattering straw, which goes to the excruciatingly painful, awkward, and unconvincing 'romance' crowbarred into the film which made me want too slap everyone involved. I'm embarrassed to call this a SFR. And one final thing: every time someone mentioned a thousand planets, all I could hear was Nebula from Guardians of the Galaxy promising Ronan she would help him destroy a thousand planets if he killed her father, Thanos. O.o
In conclusion:
Despite all my criticisms, I didn't hate this film. I didn't even want to walk out on it unlike the dire disaster of Transformers: The Last Knight. It's saved by the almost constant action and glorious visuals, plus the main plot of a hidden war crime to keep this interesting. I just think Besson did a way better job with The Fifth Element and was trying too hard to make a Cameron/Avatar type film. That said, I would probably say it is worth seeing in all its visual glory at the cinema, though I'm glad we didn't opt for 3D as I was getting a touch of eyestrain just with the 2D version.
Should you go see it? I'm not sure I want to try convincing you to do so. I went in with fairly low expectations on plot but high on the visuals even without reading reviews. I'm not even sure about buying the DVD when it releases. I think I'm going to rate this 5 out of 10 because I'm kind of undecided with The Last Knight as my official 0.
Status Update
No progress on book stuff, but I had a job interview Friday (nerves over which somewhat took the shine off my birthday last Thursday) and...I got it! I'll now be working two six hour shifts at my local grocery store, giving me a bit extra cash while still allowing me to be there for my monsters, look after my chooks, and even work on my books.
Chook Update
The chicks are now just over a month old and about four times bigger than at hatching. They've pretty much lost their chick fluff and have adult feathers. Sadly we now know that five of them are cockerels, with just Splash (now officially named Flick) probably a hen. Even if we could keep a cockerel or two, we certainly couldn't keep all five. My eldest is particularly gutted by this development, but that's the reality of keeping pets and livestock.
The good news is hubs has given his blessing on getting more hatching eggs, and they might even have arrived by the time this post goes live. Fingers crossed for another successful hatch but more biased toward female babies!
Lemon, renamed Bee
Cuckoo
Bailey (formally Mot)
Splash, now renamed Flick
Miller
Lavender, now Penguin
Mama Effie with Penguin
Events
If you're an aspiring or even published author looking to enhance/expand your skills, this may be the workshop for you:
Ever read a book and wonder how the author created such an
incredible, engrossing world? Do you want to BE that author?
Writing is a lot more than just Characters + Dialogue
+ Action = End. For genre writers especially, worldbuilding is a critical skill
that will help you create a world that jumps off the page and into your
reader’s mind.
How do
you get there?
Where do
you start?
Worldbuilding is one of the most intimidating aspects of the writing
process, but it doesn’t have to be. In Why
Worldbuilding (is the Secret Ingredient): The Complete Beginner’s Guide,
Catherine Peace, author of books like Gemini—a
science fiction romance featuring a universe built around giant cats, Chuck Norris
facts, and aliens galore—will guide you on the journey from creating bland
settings to vibrant, believable worlds for your characters and stories to
inhabit.
Starting
October 16, you'll get your chance
to learn about one of the hardest and most rewarding parts of the writing
process: Worldbuilding. Using examples from some of science fiction and
fantasy's best known worlds, you'll gain the tools and insight you need to
create your own.
Once
you’ve gone through the course, you should be able to:
·Understand worldbuilding’s importance and function in your story
·Utilize the building blocks that will guide you through building your
world
·Calculate the air speed velocity of an unladen European swallow (this is
not true; I suck at math)
·Seamlessly weave your worldbuilding elements into your story
Over the
five-week course, we’ll explore some of storytelling’s lushest worlds—from
Westeros to Hogwarts with a few unexpected stops in-between—and break them down
into easily digestible concepts you can use to beef up your stories and give
them the punch that will set them apart. BAM!
Put on
your apron, grab your chef’s hat, and join me in October!
***REGISTRATION
OPENS AUGUST 15***
*Course
details: You will get out of this course exactly what you put into it. It
will use a ton of examples from abovementioned famous books and my own writing,
and there will be some homework involved. (Don’t worry, I’m not grading
anything.) I will always be happy to answer your questions.
Not a writer? You can still get plenty out of Why
Worldbuilding! LARPers and RPG enthusiasts alike can use the course to brush up
on worldbuilding skills!
Course schedule Each class is $30, or you can complete the set
for $130
Week One – Intro to Worldbuilding: What is it? And
why should I do it?
oCovers: October 16
§What worldbuilding is and what it isn’t
§Worldbuilding and your setting: Houston, I think we have a problem.
October 18
§Worldbuilding and your characters: Who am I and how did I get here?
§Worldbuilding and your plot: What does this button do?
October 20
§Worldbuilding and your genre: We go together like....
§Worldbuilding and your story: A mechanic without his tools is just a tool.
Week Two – The Basics: What you need to know and why you need to know it.
oCovers:
October 23
§Know your genre.
oYou can mix and match in a thousand different ways,
but you need to understand what makes genres, genres.
§Know your story.
oPlotters will likely have most everything nailed
down. Pantsers need to have a working knowledge of their story - some
beginning, mushy middle, vague end. Your world affects it all.
October 25
§Know
your (character's) role in your plot.
oBasic plots & how your genre shapes them and
your characters.
October 27
§Know your characters.
oWhether you know enough to fill out a dating
profile or volumes of biography, you should at least know 3 things: A name, a
role, and a goal
Week Three – Playing God, pt 1: The Building Blocks of Civilization
oCovers: October 30
§Family
oThe Family (or lack thereof) Unit
o What do we
eat? When do we eat? …Do we eat?
o Where do I
live?
oGender roles & Familial bonds
§Love and Sex
oSex and sexuality
o What is
Love?
November 1
§Science, History, Religion
oScience and advancement—is it even allowed?
oHow is history recorded?
oReligion, mythology, philosophy, factions, and cults
