Tag: Fantasy (Urban)

Author Spotlight: John Hartness

Erin Penn

Book Cover for Stone Cold Crazy

Cover from Amazon

John G. Hartness is a … personality. His podcast, Literate Liquors where he pairs good books with good booze, is NSFW (not safe for work), and the language on his blog has vocabulary not allowed in G movies. But he is passionate about writing and is willing to help those willing to help themselves. Not satisfied with helping new authors through organizing a few anthologies (The Big Bad and The Big Bad II, for example), he has gone on to start Falstaff Publishing. In addition he regularly contributes at Gail Z Martin’s meetup about how the publishing industry works.

Series he’s written include: The Black Knight Chronicles (published by Bell Bridge Books), Bubba the Monster Hunter (self-published – and yes it is EXACTLY as wild as it sounds), and Quincy Harker (self-published). Plus he had tons of short stories and other material out there.

Highly educated, he man can talk theater, electrical, and wiring. He works as a publisher, marketer, content editor, and with a dozen of other skills beyond his formidable sales ability.

And when the Interweb posts self-published are silly, ineffectual people, gloves come off.

If you want to know what self-writing is about, the schedule you keep, the blood you will bleed – read this blog published April 26, 2016: Ros Barber may not be an elitist assclown, but she sure comes off as one.

Biggest takeaway for me was: 
“…if you want it, it’s out there. But you have to want it. And you have to be willing to work harder than anyone else, because that’s what small business owners do. And if you don’t look at your writing career as being a small business owner, then you’re not ready to have a writing career, no matter how you plan to publish.” (John Hartness, 2016)

Flash: My Seat

Erin Penn

Empty Airplane Seats In The Cabin Stock Photo

FreeDigitalPhotos.net photo by jk1991

Someone was sitting in my seat. Every year, upon returning from the family reunion, I would immediately make a reservation for the next year, choosing the middle seat on the row with the emergency wing exit. One of my many plans. I didn’t want the responsibility of opening the door; I wanted to be the first one through in case the plane was on fire. Always safe and always careful.

Until the accident. My gently used Volvo and a run-away truck had an argument. I lost.

My family returned the seat for the refund months ago. I’m just hanging around following my plans. I attended the last of my college classes. Went to all the job interviews I planned during spring break so I would have a job as soon as I graduate. Attended graduation and the three June weddings of friends. The list goes on. All my beautiful plans.

I haven’t seen any other ghosts. I am not sure I am a ghost. Or what the rules are. I like rules and plans. Everything has a structure.

Everything SHOULD have a structure.

I’ve been very annoyed Saint Peter isn’t available as a gate guard or guide.

My best guess, since I seem to be drawn to everywhere I had made commitments and plans, is I am stuck here until my last plan deadline is past. I hope my hypothesis is wrong, since I had everything worked out including retiring to Florida like my grandparents did and had even given thought to which part of the Diocese’s cemetery plots I would be buried in.

My family cremated me.

I am looking forward to what would have been my 30th birthday. My plan was to go to New Zealand if I didn’t marry before then and use it as the honeymoon. In fact, I had been returning from coming back from getting my passport when the truck hit me.

The stewardess finished showing everyone how to work a seatbelt. Can’t believe that is still part of the take-off spiel, but I guess it calms nerves. It’s a full plane so there are a lot of nerves to calm, especially at the start of a three-hour flight.

Someone was sitting in my seat. … I wonder what would happen if I sat in his lap?

(words 383 – first published 5/15/2016)

Book Review: Dresden – Ghost Story and Cold Days

Erin Penn

Book Cover for Ghost Story

Book Cover from Amazon

BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON
Ghost Story by Jim Butcher
When we last left the mighty wizard detective Harry Dresden, he wasn’t doing well. In fact, he had been murdered by an unknown assassin.

But being dead doesn’t stop him when his friends are in danger. Except now he has nobody, and no magic to help him. And there are also several dark spirits roaming the Chicago shadows who owe Harry some payback of their own.

To save his friends-and his own soul-Harry will have to pull off the ultimate trick without any magic…

Book Cover for Cold DaysBook Cover from Amazon

BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON
Cold Days by Jim Butcher
After being murdered by a mystery assailant, navigating his way through the realm between life and death, and being brought back to the mortal world, Harry realizes that maybe death wasn’t all that bad. Because he is no longer Harry Dresden, Chicago’s only professional wizard.

He is now Harry Dresden, Winter Knight to Mab, the Queen of Air and Darkness. After Harry had no choice but to swear his fealty, Mab wasn’t about to let something as petty as death steal away the prize she had sought for so long. And now, her word is his command, no matter what she wants him to do, no matter where she wants him to go, and no matter who she wants him to kill.

Guess which Mab wants first?

Of course, it won’t be an ordinary, everyday assassination. Mab wants her newest minion to pull off the impossible: kill an immortal. No problem there, right? And to make matters worse, there exists a growing threat to an unfathomable source of magic that could land Harry in the sort of trouble that will make death look like a holiday.

Beset by enemies new and old, Harry must gather his friends and allies, prevent the annihilation of countless innocents, and find a way out of his eternal subservience before his newfound powers claim the only thing he has left to call his own…His soul.

***

A Quick Aside
So I decide to publish book reviews about a couple recent Harry Dresden books and while looking up the links I discover a Kickstarter campaign for a Dresden Cooperative Card Game. If this is something you might be interested in, please pop on over to the Kickstarter site and see what it is all about. A happy coincidence which I hope brings some great fun to people.

KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN FOR A DRESDEN CARD GAME – HAPPENING UNTIL MAY 19, 2016 AT 5:00 EASTERN DAYLIGHT TIME
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/evilhat/the-dresden-files-cooperative-card-game

***

MY REVIEW – Ghost Story (Book #13)

Life got busy and I stopped reading Harry Dresden for a while, partially because the stories felt repetitive.

AND THEN HE DIED. OMG!

“Ghost Story” was amazing to come back to after my hiatus from the series, and I may need to go back and reread some of my Dresden and pick up the novels I have missed. All my favorite characters, but changed because the connecting tissue of Dresden was expunged with his death.

But … wizards are bad at staying dead – Dresden never knew when to shut up and stop interfering and a little thing like no longer breathing is not going to keep a lifetime of habits, including saving the world, from continuing.

***

MY REVIEW – Cold Days (Book #14)

Happy Birthday Dresden, welcome back from the Dead, by the way you need to save the world today.

Another Harry Dresden knock-down, drag-out roller coaster ride. Cold Days start in the Winter court and you *might* think you can figure out the good guys form the bad, but attributing good and bad to fairies is never advisable and by the end of the book the reveals totally change the perspective on what, why, and whom does stuff in the fairy portion of the Dresden universe.

This book is a game-changer in the Harry Dresden world, and I am interested to see how the new knowledge about why fairies do the things they do will affect Dresden in his role as Winter Knight – but also in his role as a human being. Because even though good and bad don’t matter to soulless fairies, Dresden has meet angels and demons and his very-human soul is on-the-line while he saves the world in future books.

Book Review: Nolander

Erin Penn

Book Cover for Nolander

Book cover by Amazon

BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON
Nolander by Becca Mills

Beth Ryder knows she’s different. In a tiny rural town, being an orphaned and perpetually single amateur photographer crippled by panic disorder is pretty much guaranteed to make you stick out like a sore thumb.
But Beth doesn’t understand just how different she really is.

One day, strange things start cropping up in her photos. Things that don’t look human. Impossible things. Monstrosities. Beth thinks her hateful sister-in-law, Justine, has tampered with her pictures to play a cruel joke, but rather than admitting or denying it, Justine up and vanishes, leaving the family in disarray.

Beth’s search for Justine plunges her into a world she never knew existed, one filled with ancient and terrifying creatures. Both enemies and allies await her there—a disturbingly sexy boss, a sentient wolf with diamond fur, body-snatching dinosaur-birds. Separating the allies from the enemies is no easy chore, but in this strange new world, allies are a necessity. A plot is afoot, and Beth—whose abilities no one seems able to explain—may well hold the key to solving it.

Nolander is the first novel in the fantasy series Emanations. The second novel, Solatium, and a short story, Theriac, are also available.

 

Book Cover from Amazon

BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON
Solatium (Book 2 of Emanations) by Becca Mills

Beth Ryder’s dangerously sexy and seemingly all-powerful boss has disappeared, leaving an increasingly desperate group of Nolanders — and one inept Second — in charge of policing other-worldly activity across much of North America. What better time for a legendary monster to emerge from the Second Emanation and make New York City its hunting ground? But little does Beth know that dealing with the voracious Thirsting Ground will pale in comparison to a shocking betrayal that threatens to destroy her new life among the Nolanders.

***

MY REVIEW – Nolander (Book 1)
Anyone that has read my reviews know that I am a world-creationist lover. Give me a new world, solid and levels deep and I am in heaven.

The world of Nolander delivers, a new magic/psonic system, a new alternate reality system, and all wonderful.

Plus the book defies convention – New Adult about a girl, but no romance, is it urban fantasy or alternate reality or sci fi or fantasy – doesn’t matter. What matters is this book a very, very good – just shy of perfection.

Characters either had too much hidden or were too predictable, a lighter hand is needed there to match the complications of the world. (And having read the next book of the series, the author’s skill with character creation does get better.)

***

MY REVIEW – Solatium (Book 2)

Book 2 of the series (book 1 is free, as is the short story) and the world-building just keeps getting better. The character building does as well, and the plot, and the complications. For fairly new readers this may be the best book you have ever read (for those of us who have been gobbling books for decades, this is a surprising gem).

I believe these worlds – the way each splits off the First Emanation provides millions of years of dinosaurs throughout the Second Emanations – so I believe the biology and geography of the alternate universes. I believe the sociology – on the First Emanation, the biggest and strongest kept going until eventually systems of humans were shown to work better and safer and were more beneficial (even for the biggest and strongest). The problem in the Second Emanations are the Powers are not only bigger and stronger, they are also nearly all either half-mad, all-bored or both and learning the benefits of a parliament or republic system doesn’t work for them.

Then Beth, the new girl, maybe a power, is added to the mix.

***
… and then the series ends. (sad face) Becca Mills released all these stories in 2014 but recently updated Nolander at the end of 2015. Maybe she will be working on more soon!

Blog: The Genders of Urban Fantasy

Erin Penn

Bonus blog today. I figured since I waxed poetic, or at least ranted and pooled information from a lot of other bloggers and websites, about the uneven treatment of genders within genre, I should touch base on Urban Fantasy. This fantasy sub-genre focuses on fantastical activity (werewolves, psionists, vampires, elves, spellcasters, etc.) in a contemporary setting, usually in a big city like New York. Some sub-sub-genres include Historical Urban Fantasy (Thieftaker Chronicles series by D. B. Jackson starring a wizard set in revolutionary Boston) and Suburban Fantasy (Witch Way to the Mall(an anthology) edited by Esther Friesner). Closely related to Urban Fantasy is Near-Future Sci-Fi, where a story is set in nearly modern times but the fantastical elements have a scientific bent.

I love Urban Fantasy, but have found it to be very gender-divisive. While some series are “generic”, for example the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher and Deadly Curiosities series by Gail Z. Martin, most are either clearly “female” or “male” sub-genres. The female subgenre has romance (or at least heavy sex), usually with two love interests, the woman kicks-ass, rarely needs help, and has magical powers of her own. Nearly all males of the story are defined by their relation to the main character, often portrayed sexy but needing the woman through some mystical link. (An example would be theAnita Blake series by Laurell K. Hamilton.) The male version usually has one female love interest, but the true love is guns and explosives. The stories have lots of violence. The lead character is larger than life, but came from “every-man” beginnings like accounting before magic intrudes on his life. All women are defined in their relationship to the main character, and the first description is not about personal competence but what they look like…how sexy they are. (An example would be the Deacon Chalk Bounty Hunter series by James R, Tuck.)

Both versions have a lot of wish-fulfillment, feature loners, and are unrepentantly sexist. The male version read like old westerns or spy novels and the female versions read like supped-up bodice rippers and, again, traditional spy novels. And everything about them is a guilty pleasure.

Sometimes the authors take the sexism too far. When none of the women in the Male Urban Fantasy have agency (the ability to act on their own) and all exist as sex objects, and the story is basically glorified gun porn, plus the Alpha Male walks over everyone in the story because his mission/opinion is the only one that matters, nothing about the story is likable or identifiable. In the female version of bad Urban Fantasy, when all of the men are weak and let the female treat them like crap, the story is basically self-empowerment of one female who belittles or demeans even her female friends, and magic solves all issues, again the story becomes unreadable.

Am I going to stop reading “female” version Urban Fantasy? Not likely, but then I will also continue to read the “male” version and the “generic” version as well. I enjoy the strong agency of the females in Female Urban Fantasy and the exceptional fight scenes in the Male Urban Fantasy…and the cool magic all around. I do wish more authors could find a way to create a powerful main character without belittling the opposite sex – Ms. Martin and Mr. Butcher in their “generic” versions prove it can be done.

Any comments or thoughts on Urban Fantasy by gender split? Have you noticed the difference? Does it bother you on an emotional or intellectual level? If only one, why do you think it appeals to your emotions/intellect but bothers your emotions/intellect?

Urban Fantasy Heroines cover art breakdown

Image acquired from OrbitBooks – Link to original here