Category: Blog

Writing Exercise: Genderless

Erin Penn Leave a comment

Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash

Can you write a story with no gendered pronouns? The most common substitution by authors is “them/they’re”.

I’ve been really impressed with the Murderbot Diaries series by Martha Wells. Her main character is never defined with gender as a mechanical being. At the book club where we talked about the book “All Systems Red”, half of us thought the main character had “he/him” pronouns and the other half used “she/her” pronouns talking about the character. I went through the first book again and discovered a complete blank and none of us had noticed while reading the books.

That is some awful good writing.

WRITING EXERCISE: Write a flash or scene where at least one of the characters’ genders is never defined.

My Attempt: The Dream of You and I (2/4/2024).

Book Review: Shield Band (Elven Alliance Book 6)

Erin Penn Leave a comment

Amazon Cover

Shield Band (Elven Allliance Book 6) by Tara Grayce

BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON

Julien always thought he knew his duty…until an arranged marriage upends his future.

Prince Julien of Escarland was the kingdom’s spare. His duty is to quietly stand in the background at his brother’s side, protecting him and his heirs.

When it becomes clear that one more marriage is needed to secure the three-way alliance between the kingdoms of Kostaria, Tarenhiel, and Escarland, Julien agrees to an arranged marriage with a troll. He doesn’t know their language and he might not be strong enough to fit into their battle-focused culture, but other than that, how bad could it be?

As King Rharreth’s shield sister, Vriska is duty-bound to protect him and his queen. But she never expected her duty to include a marriage with a human.

An empire-hungry kingdom is lurking, seeking any weakness in the alliance. Will this final bond keep the alliance from crumbling? Can Julien and Vriska find love in a union based on duty?

Return to the snowy mountains of Kostaria in this installment of the bestselling Elven Alliance series, a no-spice, humorous fantasy romance / romantic fantasy featuring elves and arranged marriages!

MY REVIEW

I read this book based on a TikTok recommendation list about powerful love interests in a fantasy romance, where the female characters in a fantasy couple aren’t the “princess being rescued, but doing the rescuing”. And this book definitely delivers on that vibe.

Vriska is one of the personal bodyguards to a mountain king where all nobles must be warriors; she is so deep into the royal household she is considered his sister within their culture.

Prince Julien comes from a low-land human kingdom and has been the spare prince in-waiting, happy to serve in the military and then in his brother’s household – because no longer being spare would mean the loss of his closest family. When his brother-king needs a marriage alliance as part of a peace treaty, Julien heads into the mountains to court a warrior bodyguard/adopted sister of the new ally.

Warrior and Prince have to merge their countries in a strong alliance, stop incursions from a sea-power kingdom seeking to destroy the peace treaty, and discover if love can develop out of duty.

This fantasy romance is no spice, with only a few kisses, and has the POV alternating between the Warrior and the Prince. They both bring their strengths and weaknesses to the sparring ring. The plot and world are solid; characters each have their own wants and needs, but characterization isn’t as strong as the worldbuilding and plotting. I only read the sixth book of this eight-book series and it worked fine as a stand-alone.

These are just things I didn’t like as much. All of these particular items felt like personal tastes and not general downsides.
1. The cover shows Vriska as shorter than Julien, and as described in the book she either his height or slightly taller – not the typical 85% shorter than the male shown in the drawing. The picture could be interpreted that the rocky ledge area he is standing on is slightly higher than hers, which is why he appears taller, but, still, I don’t like it. (note – while uploading this review, I ran across the original cover, which, while “simpler” does have the height correct, so I like it better for that)
2. The characterization isn’t distinctly strong for me, but that could be me starting in book six of the series.
3. The author’s tagline on her website is “Humorous Fantasy with a Dash of Romance.” Snark, humor, and layers of worldbuilding … in the way I like them … aren’t in this book. Basically overall okay for characters, world-building, plot, and entertainment, but nothing exceptional. At least the way I like it. But that, I think, is more like liking mustard-based BBQ over ketchup-based BBQ – personal preference.

This book doesn’t match my personal preference. It was good, in my opinion, but not great. But I can see people adoring this book.

Book Review (SERIES): Mrs. Pollifax

Erin Penn Leave a comment

Movie Poster from the 1971 Movie: Mrs. Pollifax Spy

I was introduced to the Mrs. Pollifax series in college, read through all of them, and then went on to read through the author’s, Dorothy Gilman, entire catalog. She passed in 2012 and I had to move on to other authors.

Fast forward to 2024. I had been hired to work in a library. Who knew that working for a library would mean I would have virtually no time to read? I was constantly shelving books, working on programming, or helping patrons. Faced with the challenge to keep up on my reviews, I thought “why not try audiobooks?” Normally, my version of neuro-spicy hates background noise, but I had a long half-hour commute on a mostly empty highway each direction (more like 45 minutes in the morning). I like my music, but I was missing fictional stories.

I had been shelving audiobooks and noticed Mrs. Pollifax and thought “Perfect!” A comfort read that I could turn off easily arriving at work or arriving at home. These are the three audiobooks I read while working for a library system.

Mrs. Pollifax is a widow of a certain age that when she had nothing left to live for, contacted the CIA to become a spy. This a series of unexpected shenanigans, she received an assignment and survived the results. Her name went into Carstairs rolodex and whenever a random older lady could get through a situation that a normal spy would be pinged immediately, he would brush the dust off and call her again. Fourteen books resulted.

I read books ten, eleven, and fourteen of the series this time around. The entire list from BookSeriesInOrder.com:

  1. The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax (1966)
  2. The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax (1970)
  3. The Elusive Mrs. Pollifax (1971) – Movie come out this year
  4. A Palm for Mrs. Pollifax (1973)
  5. Mrs. Pollifax on Safari (1976)
  6. Mrs. Pollifax on the China Station (1983)
  7. Mrs. Pollifax and the Hong Kong Buddha (1985)
  8. Mrs. Polllifax and the Golden Triangle (1988)
  9. Mrs. Pollifax and the Whirling Dervish (1990)
  10. Mrs. Pollifax and the Second Thief (1993)
  11. Mrs. Pollifax Pursued (1995)
  12. Mrs. Pollifax and the Lion Killer (1996)
  13. Mrs. Pollifax, Innocent Tourist (1997) – a direct-to-DVD movie starting Angela Lansbury come out in 1999
  14. Mrs. Pollifax Unveiled (2000)

Amazon Cover

BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for MRS. POLLIFAX AND THE SECOND THIEF

The assignment is a snap: Mrs. Pollifax just has to shoot some pictures at a quiet funeral outside Washington and take them to Sicily, where her old friend Farrell — a former CIA agent turned art dealer — anxiously awaits them.

But like all Mrs. P’s assignments, so ostensibly suitable for the CIA’s favorite garden club member, this one quickly turns lethal. Her welcoming committee in Palermo includes a most unlikely CIA agent and several unseen enemies. Unfriendly eyes also observe Mrs. P’s rendezvous with Farrell in a secluded mountain village and weapons are soon displayed. With mysterious forces hot after them, she and Farrell scurry for safety to a fortified country villa, where the bizarre chatelaine, once a star on Madison Avenue, is almost as unnerving as the dangers she’s protecting them from.

So, though the sun shines brightly, the food is delicious, and romance is in the air, Mrs. Pollifax is too busy handing out karate chops and playing catch-me-if-you-can with an assassin to enjoy the amenities . . . .

MY REVIEW for MRS. POLLIFAX AND THE SECOND THIEF

Read through a local library audiobook. The audio was crafted by Brilliance Audio with a multi-member cast.

I forgotten just how good this particular Mrs. Pollifax is.

I love John Farrell and his admiration of his “Duchess”. The love story. The eccentric aunt of Kate. The village. The return of Aristotle. The political intrigue. The Second Thief is picture perfect Mrs. Pollifax.

 

 

Amazon Cover

BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for MRS. POLLIFAX PURSUED

The last thing Mrs. Pollifax expects to find in her junk closet is a young woman hiding. Kadi Hopkirk insists that she’s being followed by two men in a dirty white van. Under the cover of darkness, Mrs. P. tries to drive Kadi back home to Manhattan, only to have a dark green sedan give them a run for their money and, Mrs. P. begins to suspect, their lives.

Finally Kadi shares the startling truth: her friend, Sammy, is the son of the assassinated president of an African country and, unbeknownst to the young man’s bodyguard, he passed her something under the table during a recent meeting. Ever resourceful, Mrs. P. puts in a call for help to her CIA colleague, Carstairs, who installs them in a safe house—at a carnival! Before Mrs. P. knows it, a dash to safety expands into an assignment that leads to hair-trigger violence in exotic places. . . .

MY REVIEW for MRS. POLLIFAX PURSUED

I’m exploring whether I can listen to audiobooks while driving and I thought I would dive into a comfort favorite. I haven’t read Mrs. Pollifax since the Nineties – this book was originally published in 1995 and is part of a series started in 1966 and ran until 2000. I listened to the Brilliance Audio version, recorded in 1995. Words and situations like “VCR” and “gypsy” and the “quaintness of Africa” all date the book, but the listen was still very enjoyable. I managed to listen to the book going to and from work for three of the four discs but couldn’t wait for morning to finish and listened to the last disc while sewing at home.

Mrs. Pollifax finds a young woman hiding in her closet. This escalates and intertwines with a kidnapping Carstairs is helping the FBI with. Humor and adventure, mystery and murder, carny and spy action ensues. I love Mrs. P as an older protagonist.

While the book has aged, and may not be accessible to younger readers, I still enjoyed the revisit.

Checked out through the local library.

 

Amazon Cover

BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for MRS. POLLIFAX UNVEILED

After facing down hijackers on a flight to the Middle East and saving the lives of the passengers on board, a young American woman steps off the plane in Damascus in a blaze of celebrity and disappears. The CIA believes Amanda Pym was kidnapped, possibly murdered.

Masquerading as Amanda Pym’s worried aunt, Mrs. Pollifax begins her determined search, slipping through Damascus’s crooked streets and crowded souks . . . and trekking deep into the desert. Yet she is shadowed by deadly enemies, whose sinister agenda threatens not only Mrs. P. but the fragile stability of the entire Middle East. Only a miracle–or a brilliant counterplot– can forestall a disaster that will send shock waves around the world.

MY REVIEW for MRS. POLLIFAX UNVEILED

Re-read through audio performance by Brilliance Audio.
Unlike the two previous Mrs. Pollifax I listened to by Brilliance Audio which had a cast, this version only had a single performer. It still was a lovely read listening to a woman’s voice.

The last of the Pollifax series (due to Ms. Gilman’s (the author) failing health) our intrepid spy lands in Syria to find a lost American woman, who may not want to be found. With Farrell at her side, they arrive as innocent tourists looking for their “family” member. The police state tears Farrell away from Emily, with her being injured in the process, and now Mrs. Pollifax, or Duchess as the painfully missing Farrell calls her, must meet their objective alone in a country where she doesn’t speak the language and the people are ruled by fear.

But being Mrs. Pollifax, she endures and makes friends. Still finding one person in a country alone is like finding a needle in a haystack.

The story, now twenty-four years old (published in 2000) is becoming dated. Amanda Prym is always referred to as a “girl” though she is a full-grown adult – college age, so forgivable by our team of world-wearied adults. Other technology issues have gotten better, the mix of politics in the mid-east have gotten worse, stuff like that. Still a wonderful yarn.

I hope Mrs. Pollifax and her Cyrus live on forever happy having their adventures.

Flash: The Back Room

Erin Penn Leave a comment

Photo by Tomoe Steineck on Unsplash

The inn’s Back Room cracked windows released the some of the excessive heat created from the afternoon sun beating down on the building just mere hours ago, but soon the keeper or one of his sons would need to come into the well-appointed space and close them to keep the temperature necessary for sleeping against growing the late autumn chill as the sun dipped below the mountain range. In the meantime, a young nobleman paced while an older man sprawled on the settee, a book dangling between fingers to mark his place while he waited for Nigel to wind down.

“Have you made the decision to run?” Matthews asked. “I can have a ship ready for you before you make it back to Seaport.”

“I can’t do that, you know I can’t do that.” Nigel turned on the knotted wool rug to walk the other direction. “If I was going to do that, I wouldn’t have come this far. I would have run while in Kylar.”

“Then tomorrow morning we go through the pass.”

“Gods.” Nigel threw his head back in frustration, before executing another turn. “It’s so stupid. I thought I was safe.”

The old solider chuckled. “I know I taught you better than that.”

“There is no safety in war.”

“And?”

“The crown is either at war or preventing it, and therefore they are always in a state of war.” Nigel crossed the carpet again. “But Jackel has two children already. It should be one of them.”

“They are too young, considering.”

“Exactly.” Nigel ran both hands through his top-cut before throwing them out at his old mentor. “Thirty-two! ‘Considering.’ How is this even a consideration?”

“Treaties are made.” Matthews gave up waiting for the twenty-four-year-old to calm. Picking up his bookmark, he slid it between the pages and tucked the leather-bound treatise on horse breeding back into its velvet bag for storage with the other two books he had brought on this trip. “The merchant trade alone is worth a princely reward.”

The glare Nigel shot glanced off Matthews careless manner without effect. He hardened its steel and stared. Knocking on the door to the Back Room, startled him and drew both their eyes to the wooden barrier as it opened and the noise of the main room flooded in.

“My pardon, your Grace, your …,” the innkeeper coughed, cutting off his speech for a moment, as Nigel raised his eyebrows, “Sir.” He entered, a veiled lady traveler on his arm. “This good lady arrived seeking succor, and, as you know, with the harvest holiday, things are … hectic in the front rooms. May she share the Back with you?”

Rarely did anything trump Matthews station as Duke of Seaport. But a quick glance at the woman’s silk veil indicated crafting, if not necessarily nobility, the lacework being minimal around the eyes, then at least high merchant class, the delicate thinness of the fabric while retaining opaqueness was beyond the reach of all but the deepest purses, and as Nigel’s present dilemma revealed, accommodations needed to be made for those who ruled the trade routes. The duke stood, indicating with a hand sweep to the keep to install the woman the best seat of the room. She sunk, carefully arranging layers of green and teal skirts around her, heavy red clay clinging around the hems. She untucked the edges of her veil from the laces holding her bodice and blouse together so the bottom foot of fabric pooled in her lap.

Once settled, she turned her head toward the keep and nodded. “My Lords, it is my pleasure to make Mistress Zeriff’shazeriff known to you.” He stumbled over the foreign name. “Mistress, these are his Grace, my own Duke of Seaport,” Matthews ruled the land between the pass and the port and bowed acknowledgement of the introduction, the woman tilted her head slightly in return “and … Nigel, Knight of the Order of the Icey Pansy, Lord of … Ground-swell?” The keep looked toward the two noblemen for confirmation.

Matthews nodded, impressed the man had pulled one of Nigel’s lesser noble titles from the heated air, while his old squire grabbed his hat where he had thrown it hours ago and bowed excessively and said, “A pleasure.” The woman veil had puffed out when Nigel was introduced, but her head moved not at all after his obeisance.

“Your meal should be here shortly,” the plainfolk bowed to the men before turning to the woman and saying in a nervous rush, “and Mistress, I will have that foot bath ready for you straight away.”

The two soldiers shared a glance, Nigel giving a quick finger signal they used to exchange when he was squired to the duke to indicate troublesome officers with delusions of grandeur. The innkeeper hadn’t batted an eye having Matthews stay in the Climb’s Start for a week while the letter he sent ahead found Nigel and brought the young man back home from his most recent escapade, nor had he cared when Nigel finally arrived other than delivering the wanderer directly to his old mentor, yet this woman had already managed to get into the Back without a title and had the man rushing to meet her demands over the nobles. What kind of harridan was now ensconced with them for the evening and how soon could they extract themselves from the situation?

(words 899, first published 2/5/2025)