Howdy!

I’m looking for new recommendations. I just had a blast reading Jeff Strand’s Cemetery Closing (Everything Must Go), his latest Andrew Mayhem book, then dove into Lawrence Block’s Dead Girl Blues. The latter of which gave me interesting dreams.

I remember, roughly 20 years ago, reading a bunch of Jeff Strand’s books for free. Maybe he was published by Tor? Or Baen? I think both of those publishers were offering free ebooks at one time or another. The idea was to discover what that did to print sales. It increased them…the lesson from that was probably something along the lines of obscurity being worse than piracy. Obviously context-dependent. Anyway, I had Strand’s books in a .lit format that probably doesn’t exist anymore on a PDA running Windows CE. And I’d never heard of him. So, 20 years later, here I am loving his stuff. Buying it whenever something new comes out. I guess it worked.

Some of Strand’s stories are a bit more involved. A bit more bizarre. And with, you know, believable characters. That’s not what he does with Andrew Mayhem. This latest had pirates, cannibals, macabre death, and tons of humor: par for the course. As I said, I had a blast. (Strand often plays with a mix of horror and humor…sometimes supernatural stuff, sometimes not, but generally I love it.)

Then, the same day (yesterday) I finally started Lawrence Block’s latest. Oh boy. I want to say a lot about it…but what I really want is to converse about it. It is, in a word, dark. No fantasy/supernatural stuff here, as that’s not what LB does.

Okay, two things I guess I can say without worrying about spoilers, but if you’re not interested in occasionally reading really, really dark stuff maybe you should just skip this paragraph: (1) It reminded me, as far as “feel”/mood, of Donald Westlake’s The Ax, which was a very good book I may never reread, and (2) LB himself dropped this into his newsletter prior to publication…um…in the first chapter, the protagonist rapes and kills an innocent woman. And not in that order.

Hey. I said it was dark.

Anyway, the book is hard to talk about. I guess it’s safe to say it explores the limits of forgiveness and redemption. And left me thinking about just how much more disturbing a sociopath can be, once it becomes clear that he/she/they/it can actually love others. Some others. Clearly a limited offer there.

Still. LB wrote it. I’ll read anything he writes. And it was fun. In its own thoroughly disturbing way.

On the writing front, I’m making some progress. Lots of things have come up and redirected me in the last couple of weeks. Normal, I guess. More of that today, and tomorrow too (going to the river with the kids!). But, still, some progress. Trying some new stuff. More about all that later on.

I’m serious about looking for new authors/books to try out. I tend to read everything by anyone who can hold my interest–something that’s apparently more difficult as I’ve aged. I like to think it means I’m more discerning, but whom do I kid here? My capacity for paying attention has fractured into pretty focus-shards, good for a moment’s diversion but possibly not making me a good candidate for directing traffic. Especially not airplanes.

Ooh! I could write a story about airplanes….

Well, you see what I mean. Let me know if you have any ideas/books/authors to pass along?

And have fun out there!

Lots of changes around here. More coming, too, but I don’t want to get into it…at least not yet.

There are many things I wish weren’t true but are, and one of them is that I get my best results writing in the morning – by which I mean first thing in the morning. So okay, that’s what I’m doing.

It’ll be complicated with all the kids in the house and with the summer break looming, but Monday through Friday I’ll have four hours to write before doing anything else. There’s a little bit of time on Saturday and Sunday mornings, as well.

Chiefly, though, if any of you are writers – or want to be writers – by which I guess I mean you want to write – and are interested in dictation? I have to highly recommend Dragon Anywhere, available for both Android and iOS, though I don’t want to.

Why don’t I want to? Because it requires constant Internet access. Because Nuance, the company that produces it, is extremely annoying to deal with. Because the app screws up my punctuation and capitalization, and doesn’t understand paragraphs without line spaces between them, and forces me to treat it as a text-only first-draft sort of tool, including such weirdnesses (no, the app did not recognize that word, but whose fault is that?) as only uploading to Dropbox when I specifically tell it to, and even then only as text files with no formatting. Because the app costs $15 a month.

Can I overlook all that? Yes. Why? Because, in the end, it works. I’m doing all my writing on my phone these days. I’m using its built-in microphone. Its text-to-speech engine, wherever in the cloud it may reside, works a heck of a lot better than the version of Dragon running on my laptop.

In principle I could simply be recording my voice using any old app, and transcribing those recordings back at my laptop whenever it happened to be convenient. And I’ve done that. But I don’t get any immediate feedback if there’s something wrong with the recording, which has led to a lot of wasted time and eroded my trust in the process. Also, the transcription is less accurate than simply using Dragon Anywhere. Also, the editing/transcribing process is fairly cumbersome and I very much prefer to do it as I go along, with immediate feedback.

Mostly, I just talk and my words appear on the phone. That’s what I want.

There are bugs, of course. If I press “delete” or “backspace” on my folding Bluetooth keyboard, if for some reason I actually connect it, for some other reason the app behaves as if I’d hit the key twice. I have to say…that’s clearly weird. It’s not clear to me why such a simple thing wouldn’t be fixed, even if it had to be done by giving users an optional setting.

It’s exciting for a geek like me to watch just how well this thing works. I’ve used it in a crowded pizza joint that had a full arcade blaring, with running-screaming kids, and the dictation was next to flawlessly transcribed. On the other hand, when I tried to use it outdoors with a slight breeze, I’d have been better off arranging rocks into the shapes of the characters I wanted to type. Maybe I could solve the problem with the right external microphone, or maybe not. So far, not.

I tried a few Bluetooth microphones, by the way. No go. I’d read that they wouldn’t work, and sure enough they didn’t. Too bad.

So that’s it. That’s what I’m doing. It’s going all right, except that somehow I started off writing a new novel I hadn’t seen coming. But what the heck; I’m having fun with it.

And yes, I dictated this entire post using Dragon Anywhere. Took me about 20 minutes, with editing, at a bit under 700 words (no, the app does not have a word-count feature). I guess you’ll have to judge the result for yourselves.

Meanwhile? Have fun out there!

Published by 47North, an Amazon imprint, this is a jewel of a book aimed squarely at the computer geeks among us. Well, and maybe those who are, for whatever reason, entertained by geeks. Maybe including my wife, for instance, but I don’t think she’s actually read this one yet, so I could be flat wrong about the whole notion. But the book sells quite well, and so do its sequels, so there’s something going on.

Quoting the Amazon description:

Martin Banks is just a normal guy who has made an abnormal discovery: he can manipulate reality, thanks to reality being nothing more than a computer program. With every use of this ability, though, Martin finds his little “tweaks” have not escaped notice. Rather than face prosecution, he decides instead to travel back in time to the Middle Ages and pose as a wizard.

What could possibly go wrong?

An American hacker in King Arthur’s court, Martin must now train to become a full-fledged master of his powers, discover the truth behind the ancient wizard Merlin…and not, y’know, die or anything.

See? It’s fun. That description is actually a little bit misleading, but it does mostly capture the tone of the novel, and I don’t want to inflict any spoilers on you folk. So let’s go with it.

I re-read this recently, and if anything it was more fun the second time ’round. I liked Meyer’s other books too. The humor is distributed well, by which I mean it’s not (always) heavy-handed and there’s an actual story involved. Is this my favorite book ever? Hell, no. But I’m glad I found it, and I hope you enjoy it too.

Give it a try, if you’re so inclined. I, obviously, recommend it.

Meanwhile, I’ve finished the first draft of Wednesday’s story. Should I tell you that sort of thing? Or preserve whatever mystery or illusion there might be? If I tell you, well, that’s okay because I’m kind of proud of the thing and I want to share that. On the other hand, what’s the point? You’ll see some version of it on Wednesday, and not before.

It’s currently titled The Room, but I may change that. The first sentence: “This time I wake up with Paul Newman sitting on my bed.”

What do you guys think? Better to tell you stuff like that, or not? It beats me. I’m also not sure it makes any difference either way!

So…regardless…have fun out there.

Yo!

I’ve been reading Susan Kaye Quinn’s books for a while now. I’ll tell you up front that I think she’d benefit from a copyeditor. Or maybe a second copyeditor, because I think she already pays one. Nothing too horrible, but there are occasional misused words that throw me off.

On the other hand, she tells great stories, and readers appear to love them. Me too!

This one is science fiction, but there’s not a lot of actual tech in it. If you switched the “singularity” stuff (this is the first of her Singularity series) and said it was about elves and magic? Not much in the plot would have to change.

Reading over that, it seems like more criticism. It’s not. Quinn pulls readers (or at least me) right in, and it’s hard not to care about her characters. I don’t even try. I just live in her worlds for a while, and think about them, and have a blast.

She’s also written a couple of books about indie publishing, which I encourage you to check out if you’re into that. It’s odd, but I don’t hear other people talking about how good they are. Thing is? I think they’re very possibly the best resource for indies out there.

Back to The Legacy Human. Here’s the description from Amazon:

What would you give to live forever? Seventeen-year-old Elijah Brighton wants to become an ascender—a post-Singularity human/machine hybrid—after all, they’re smarter, more enlightened, more compassionate, and above all, achingly beautiful. But Eli is a legacy human, preserved and cherished for his unaltered genetic code, just like the rainforest he paints. When a fugue state possesses him and creates great art, Eli miraculously lands a sponsor for the creative Olympics. If he could just master the fugue, he could take the gold and win the right to ascend, bringing everything he’s yearned for within reach… including his beautiful ascender patron. But once Eli arrives at the Games, he finds the ascenders are playing games of their own. Everything he knows about the ascenders and the legacies they keep starts to unravel… until he’s running for his life and wondering who he truly is.

Sound good? Well, it truly is good. Want something different, in a YA SF semi-dystopian sort of vein? Here it is. Give it a try?

Note: the link goes directly to Amazon, as The Legacy Human is in Kindle Unlimited at present.

Have fun out there!

(New-fiction word count: 523. Okay, not wonderfully high. I do like where the new story is going, though…)

J.A. Konrath, aka Joe Conrath, aka Jack Kilborn, is a heck of a guy. An “indie” superstar, he’s gone out of his way–many times–to help other writers. On top of that? He writes good books.

Most of his fiction is in the mystery/thriller range. But my favorites are his two Timecaster novels. Which probably says something or other about me, because these novels are campy, full of gratuitous and often weird sex, completely ridiculous, and…well, fun. Konrath describes them as “ecopunk,” which I think is almost irrelevant to their appeal. But maybe that’s your thing?

It may help if I tell you I’m also a fan of B-movies. Science fiction, horror, whatever. These books are just like ’em. Except that I actually prefer books to movies…

Quoting the description:

Talon Alalon is a timecaster—one of a select few peace officers who can operate a TEV, the Tachyon Emission Visualizer, which records events (most specifically, crimes) that have already happened.

With crime at an all-time low, Talon has little to do except give lectures to schoolkids—and obsess on his wife’s profession as a licensed sex partner.

Then one of her clients asks Talon to investigate a possible murder. When Talon uses the TEV to view the crime, the identity of the killer is unmistakable—it’s him, Talon Avalon.

Enough said? Probably. But I’ll also point out that Konrath has collaborated in the past with Jeff Strand, whose book I reviewed yesterday.

I’m linking to a page on Konrath’s site instead of to Amazon, because he sells autographed copies in both print and digital formats. And besides, I should probably link to authors’ sites rather than retailers anyway. I’m still figuring this “book review” thing out. But–here’s my only spoiler–Timecaster is also available via Kindle Unlimited.

Try it! I’ll bet you’ll be glad you did. I mean…in these books, I swear, if Konrath were talking about a tube of toothpaste, and if it were a completely standard tube of toothpaste indistinguishable from any other, he’d probably call it hyper-toothpaste just for fun. What’s not to love?

Have fun out there!

(New-fiction word count: zero. I got involved with a different project last night, and will probably be busy with it tonight too. It’s not good for the writing to let it get derailed like this, but sometimes life happens.)

I was an early adopter of ebooks. Sometime I’ll have to tell you the story of the night I tried to con my wife into skinny-dipping with me in what would have been a public place except it was dark. Also there were javelinas, and deer, and strange noises, and she says I danced on an armadillo but the critter’s species wasn’t actually clear to me. It seemed scarier than that, and she’s only saying “armadillo” to embarrass me.

These thoughts are too related. See, that night the only illumination we had–and no, we weren’t lost, though Herself tells the story differently–was my little handheld computing device running Windows CE. On that device, among other things, were some books by Jeff Strand.

See?

Anyway, I’m a fan. His fiction is clever, often disgusting, frequently disturbing, and sometimes even a bit scary. Strictly speaking, I guess this particular book may not count as “indie published.” But I strongly suspect, after my Google-Fu came up short, that it was at least published by a small press. And however this book came to be? I’m glad it happened.

Here’s the description from Amazon:

A man who finds a severed nose on a plate on his dining room table. A bell that can summon Satan (maybe). Casual Fridays at work that get out of control. A cheery outlook on the post-apocalyptic landscape. The final thoughts of a doomed skydiver. A girl punished by having to share a bed with her grandmother’s corpse. Revenge via baking a tarantula into a cake. A romance between two carnivorous genetically enhanced plants. And the lost tale of Fangboy.

These are only a few of the demented stories in DEAD CLOWN BARBECUE, a collection of twenty-nine gleefully macabre tales, seven of which were written just for this collection. There’s even a brand new one about a ventriloquist dummy. Those things creep you out, right? You’ll laugh. You’ll scream. Okay…you probably won’t actually scream, unless you already had issues before you started reading, but you might cringe and get a little spooked.

I’m not going to try to describe the stories, because it’s clearly pointless. I’m not even going to say this is the author’s best work, because my opinion on that varies. Sometimes with the lunar cycles, but sometimes according to…uh…well, something that varies in an eldritch way. There are things like that. Or there should be.

So, if the above sounds cool to you? Go buy a copy. Or buy something else of his. Which suddenly reminded me of another book, and another author, and I have an idea for my next review. Which, right now? Doesn’t help you.

Jeff Strand is damn good at what he does. Also, nobody else does that. Enjoy.

And have fun out there!

(New-fiction word count: 2305. Project I is getting interesting.)

The full title, for those who can’t see the cover image: Marvin Plotnik and the Sandy Rivers Hilltop Ranch for Wayward Youth, Juveniles, and Young Adults.

You can probably see what you’re getting into, just from that.

I read this book a few years ago, after the author said hello on Twitter (@D_S_Thornton) after I’d posted Marvin The Magnificent on my blog. She seemed to like my story. Whether she’d actually read it was of course not something I could verify…but I got curious, and added her book to my “maybe someday” list. I’m not sure how long it took me to get around to buying and reading the thing–months, at least–but I’m very glad I did. I still think about this one, from time to time, and chuckle.

Okay, here’s the thing. I liked Marvin. He reminded me, a bit, of Lois McMaster Bujold’s Miles Vorkosigan character. Actively engaged with his environment, you know? Clever, creative, pushy, and fun to follow. And the plot was okay. I’ll admit that if you summarized the plot in a few sentences, it might seem sort of trite. But the main thing? The best part of this book? The footnotes!

I’ve never seen anyone else pull this off so well. This is a work of light, humorous fiction. How in the world did I start looking forward to the footnotes? The hundreds and hundreds of footnotes? Well, let me put it this way. Other reviewers (this book has a total of 5 reviews on Amazon US) have compared the author to Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams. The author seems to be okay with that, as it says something similar under “Editorial Reviews” on the book’s Amazon page. My opinion: it’s better than either of those.

Sound ridiculous? How can I say a book currently ranked “#2,229,542 Paid in Kindle Store” is better than anything by Pratchett and Adams? Because I’ve read it. I don’t think many people have, and it’s a damn shame. Maybe this one will always have a small audience. Maybe it takes a certain sort of mind to enjoy the thing. But for chrissake. It’s hilarious!

Incidentally, I tried posting a review on Amazon a while back…and the ‘Zon deleted it. I guess because I’m a competitor, or something. Some sort of cold, alien, wildly inefficient but nevertheless smug machine intelligence decided to help protect the world from my review. You guys feel safer now, right?

I’m going to post this review on Goodreads. Originally I didn’t plan to post my reviews anywhere but my blog, but that two-million-plus ranking pisses me off, and I want to do whatever I can to help people find and read this one. So okay, I’ll go post my previous reviews over there too. So far that site (though owned by Amazon) doesn’t seem to delete reviews by authors.

I see Ms. Thornton has another book out. The ebook version is set at the unfortunate price of $10.99, and it’s not linked to Marvin Plotnik via her Amazon author page. I assume there’s some sort of story behind that. The newer book is a middle-grade book with a few reviews, and is sitting at the one-million-plus level of Amazon rankings. I have stories in that same range, and it means nobody’s bought them for months. A shame.

Anyway, do yourself a favor and go read about Marvin Plotnik. He’s a good kid.

And have fun out there!

Fiction total for the day: 1258 words on Project I. I had an unrelated project, but still made progress. Hoping to do better as I go along, but we’ll see how it goes.

Hey y’all!

I played around with the website design yesterday. Most of you get these posts via either RSS or email, but if you want to see a pic of me smoking a cigar and looking ridiculous from last Thanksgiving? You can. It’d be more fun to have included more of the pic–there was this glass of whiskey next to me, my brother in law on the left, a gayish-half-transgendered teen couple on the right, and I think it’d be amusing. But I guess I shouldn’t use the rest of that image without asking permission. So I haven’t. Yet.

Actually I should probably mess with a little bit of code so that image only shows up on the home page anyway. It kind of gets in the way. And there are other changes to the site, including a larger font. What the hell, it was time for something different.

Okay…I’m trying to blog lots more often. I’d love to post more book reviews, and I could do that pretty much forever, just talking about my favorites from the last 40+ years of intensive reading. But it’d be more fun to semi-specialize in indie-published books.

I don’t plan to publish the reviews anywhere but my blog. I don’t mind if other people quote them or distribute them in any way. But I don’t want to deal with things like ever-shifting Amazon review policies. That said? You could still post excerpts, at least, under “editorial reviews” on Amazon if you want to.

As for what sort of books? I have to tell you, I read all sorts of things. Probably not cookbooks. But fiction, especially if it’s somewhere in the SF-fantasy-crime-mystery-thriller spectrum that I typically read, is a possibility. So is narrative nonfiction. Bonus points for puns.

I have no idea whether this will be helpful to anybody. I don’t know how often I’ll post the reviews. Probably at least one a week? So there might be a bit of a backlog, too.

You got that part, right? No promises? FWIW, I see no point in posting a review of a book I don’t love. If I hate a book, or worse (don’t ask!), I figure lots of people out there can legitimately disagree with me. I’m not interested in trying to police other people’s reading in any way. I am interested in trying to share wonderful books with wonderful people (if you read my posts, that makes you wonderful–congrats!).

So. New-fiction word-count for today: 1485, net. There were more new words, split between Projects I and II, but I decided Project I was going in a dumb direction. So I dropped back and started over.

It’s a nice day outside. I think I’ll go sit in the sunshine and drink coffee. Hope you’re having fun out there…

UPDATE: Just occurred to me that guest posts might be fun too. If they have something to do with indie publishing, and I like ’em, I might post ’em. No guarantees of anything there either.