World in the Satin Bag

Promo Bits: Chaos by Escober

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Here’s some quick info about a new Underlands Press release. Cover Copy:When British Soldier Alex returns home from his tour in Bosnia, he’s plagued by blackouts, recurring nightmares, and uncontrollable acts of violence. Escaping to Mexico, Fisher sets off on a globetrotting tour in an attempt to distance himself from the demons in his head. A chance meeting with a mysterious woman named Angela introduces Fisher to a far more passionate-and far more dangerous-life. After a series of life-threatening encounters, Fisher begins to wonder just who Angela really is-or even if she’s real at all. With his grip on reality slipping, Fisher’s demons return in full force, awakening a flood of suppressed memories. As he attempts to sort through his complicated and half-remembered past, Fisher discovers that the truth is harder to accept than the lies. The first of four books by a popular Dutch writing duo, this tense, psychologically acute thriller marks their American debut. Title: ChaosAuthor: EscoberPublished: 05/01/2009Format: Bound Trade PaperPage Count: 320Dimensions: 6X9ISBN: 978-0-9802260-3-4 More information about the novel and how to buy it can be found at this webpage.

World in the Satin Bag

Interview w/ Paul Genesse

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Paul Genesse is one of my favorite authors. I’ve reviewed two of his novels (The Golden Cord and his newest edition to the Iron Dragon Series, The Dragon Hunters) and have interviewed him previously. If you’re interested in learning more about Paul, you can check out his website, or see his novels at Amazon here and here (or wherever you get your books). Now to prevent further stalling, here’s the interview (this interview will also be in the first issue of Survival By Storytelling, so there are some questions that relate to that): Thanks for doing this interview. First, could you tell us a bit about yourself? What got you into writing and other biographical goodies? I’m pretty sure it was a toy castle that sent me over the edge and into madness. I was four years old when I told mom I wanted to be a writer. Dragons and castles gave me reason to live from elementary school through college at Northern Arizona University. I loved my English classes, but pursued my other passion and earned a bachelor’s degree in Nursing Science in 1996. I’m a registered nurse in a cardiac unit where I work the night shift keeping the forces of darkness away from my patients. I’ve also worked as a computer game consultant, a copyeditor, and as a proofreader for a small press publisher. My short stories have been published in various large press anthologies from DAW Books, such as: Fellowship Fantastic, The Dimension Next Door, Imaginary Friends, Catopolis, Furry Fantastic, and Terribly Twisted Tales. I’ve also published three of my Pirate Witch stories in the Pirates of the Blue Kingdoms anthologies. The first two novels in my Iron Dragon Series, The Golden Cord and The Dragon Hunters are out now. Book two, The Dragon Hunters released May 15 of 2009, and both books feature covers by world famous fantasy artist, Ciruelo Cabral. I love teaching writing to people of all ages, and I’m the editor of the free Writers’ Symposium Ezine, dedicated to “Helping Writers Write.” To sign up for the ezine or watch a video about the Iron Dragon Hunters, visit me online at www.paulgenesse.com. The Dragon Hunters is book two in your Iron Dragon series (preceded by The Golden Cord). Could you tell us a bit about this particular book and the series as a whole? The tag line for The Golden Cord is, “Only some bonds can be broken,” and the description is: “A hunter must leave behind his true love, give up all hope of survival and guide his most hated enemies on a suicidal journey to the lair of the dragon king.” That description does describe the series as a whole, as well as the first book. The novel is for ages 12 (or so) and up, and is considered YA, but I think of it more as a teen to adult novel. Ten and eleven year olds usually love it too, but it’s a little scary for some of them. About book two, The Dragon Hunters, the tag line is: “On this hunt, you give up everything,” and the description: “The last of an order of dragon hunters must track down the Dragon King’s Daughter and stop her from getting the Crystal Eye, an ancient artifact that will cause the destruction of their world.” Book two is such a vicious novel, in my opinion. My fighting gloves, which were on in book one, are now coated in broken glass and feature six-inch long spikes that cause permanent damage. The poor characters have a really hard time in this book, and I’m very proud of the obstacles they have to overcome. The world is much harsher than the main character, Drake, realized. Things are not black and white. Survival may mean giving up any hope that he has of ever returning home. How do you feel about the YA category? Do you feel that it is misleading to potential readers (i.e. it puts off adult readers because they assume that it is essentially dumbed down for youngins)? I do feel that the YA category is misleading to most folks, including me. A large amount of very advanced novels get lumped into the YA category, but they’re really not books specifically for Young Adults. They’re books for anyone of any age. The truth is that the specific category books get put in are marketing decisions by the marketing people at the book publishers. YA books sell more and if the books can be put into that category, many publishers put them there. The book industry is driven my marketing. This particular installment in your Iron Dragon Series expands the scope of the world you began in The Golden Cord ten fold by taking Drake and his two Drobin comrades into new territory, particularly into an expansive desert with its own peoples and cultures. Can you talk about your approach to world building here? What was your inspiration for the people of the Khoram Desert? I love world building in general, and the world of Ae’leron is a massive world of mountainous interconnected plateaus with sheer cliffs at every edge. When you look off the edge, all you see is an ocean of clouds, the Void. No one can see beneath the mist that obscures the view into the Underworld. Planetary geography, such as Olympus Mons on Mars (it’s 65,000 feet tall and 500 miles in diameter) inspired me. Olympus Mons is a shield volcano and so are the plateaus in Ae’leron. National Geographic Magazine and all the shows about the world in general influence me. Now in book two, the characters get away from the edge of the world (the lip of the Void) and go to the interior, the Khoram Desert. I grew up near Death Valley and spent most of my life in the desert, so living there had a huge influence on me. I was inspired by the Northern African cultures of the Sahara, the ancient Israelites and

World in the Satin Bag

Promo Bits: Exit Vector by Simon Drax (Underland Press)

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Here starts a new feature here on WISB: Promo Bits. I likely won’t make personal comments on these every time, since the book or site should speak for itself. Here goes: EXIT VECTORA wovel from Underland Pressby simon draxStart date: June 22, 2009 Mori Kim Marr’s personal force-field of drugs and drink has worn thin: she’s a burned-out teenager in a burned-out world, an Earth wracked by wars and rumors of wars, plagues and disasters, the hopelessness of every human heart. Mori couldn’t care less; just bring her the next fix, please. But when an artificial woman from the 19th century and a boy with psionic powers wander into the smoke and squalor of Mori’s favorite watering hole, gore-drenched violence and city-wide destruction erupts, catapulting Mori and her new-found “friends” into the thick of a battle that began long ago, a war that has raged since before the dawn of civilization, a blood-feud fought and overseen by the sole-survivor of an ancient, pre-human race: Trista Ska Shearn, last of the Cantarans. Trista has been waiting 65,000 thousand years for this, the final battle; she has waited millennia for the glum, sallow teenager, Mori Kim Marr. For Mori is . . . the Exit Vector. Ancient enemies will clash. Worlds will crumble. The fate of the very universe will be decided in Exit Vector. About Simon Drax:SIMON DRAX was born in Gloomy, Massachusetts in 1965. He began the serious pursuit of writing fiction at 14. Drax has worked as a typesetter, graphic artist, bouncer, steel cutter, counselor to severely handicapped children, building supervisor, film critic, and art director. His stories and essays have been published in The Quarterly, Bonesaw, Midnight Zoo, Fever, After Hours, and VideoScope. His novel, A Very Fast Descent into Hell, will be published in 2010 by Underland Press. About Underland Press’ Wovel:Combining the pace of print journalism, the creativity of fiction, and the interactivity of web 2.0, the wovel is a weekly serial with a vote button at the end of each installment. Every Monday, the author posts an installment, usually about five to seven pages in length. At the end of the installment, readers vote on which direction they want the story to take, and the author incorporates the readers’ decision into the narrative. Past wovels by Kealan Patrick Burke and Jemiah Jefferson have drawn more than 1,000 readers and 14,000 page views a month. Read the first installment of EXIT VECTOR on June 22 at Underland Press.

World in the Satin Bag

Top 10 Overused Fantasy Cliches

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I’m surprised that I haven’t done this one before. There are quite a lot of fantasy tropes/cliches, so this list is particularly difficult to put together to my satisfaction. Which ones deserve to be on a top 10 list? Which ones don’t? Well, here’s what I came up with. If you have suggestions, let me know in the comments! 10. Alternate Worlds/Dimensions (like Narnia)Mostly an issue in the YA world, but let’s be honest, how many more of these alternate worlds can we take before it becomes irritating? They’re piling up on one another and it’s getting hard to keep track of all the pieces. Aslan is being eaten by a talking toothpick! Good lord! (Yes, that is a Leven Thumps reference.)9. Schools (of any description)Harry Potter ruined it. Blame Rowling. Now any time you see a wizard school, you think of HP. And don’t forget all the blasted schools that teach eleven-year-old boys how to be great knights. How many knights do we need, anyway? I think we’re good with three. Bill, Ted, and King Arthur. That’s good enough.8. Enchanted Weapons, etc.The sad thing about this entry is that I still like enchanted weapons, but they have become an overused trope. All these magical flutes and swords and crystal balls, it’s just too much. Are there any normal things left in fantasy, or is everything magical? Even food is enchanted! Elven bread! It would suck if you were allergic to magic, wouldn’t it? Wait…that’s a story idea. Ha!7. ElvesI’m sick of elves. Honestly, I was sick of elves when Tolkien used them for Lord of the Rings. They’re all the same. Calm, collected, and slightly mental. They’ve invaded science fiction too. Someone needs to come up with something less, err, cliche. What about a weird mutant hybrid between an elf and a gerbil?6. Bearded WizardsDumbledore is lovely and likable, and yet one of a long list of cliched figures crammed into the fantasy genre. Bearded wise old men are probably annoying for most people, but they’ve made a glorious comeback in YA fiction. My question is: why are they always old and bearded? Where are all the young, attractive know-it-alls who hang out in libraries reading dusty manuscripts?5. VampiresTechnically part of the urban fantasy vein, vampires have pretty much flooded the market with their pointed teeth and thirst for blood. And I do mean flooded. The problem is that now all the vampires seem the same to me. Come on people, you can come up with something else. Where are my urban fantasy tales about talking capybaras? Or vampiric capybaras…ooooooh.4. HeroesFantasy has this thing with heroes. It’s like an intentional, seventy-year mating ritual between two siblings…or something like that. There aren’t nearly enough stories about villains, and certainly not enough about folks who have no desire to be heroes. It’s just about heroes. Black and white. Which brings us to…3. Good vs. EvilThere’s not nearly enough gray in the fantasy genre. Everyone is purely evil or purely good. Thankfully we’re seeing a few more novels that highlight the unexpected heroes of the world (thieves, assassins, etc.). But, such novels are overwhelmed by all the cookie-cutter black and white, good vs. evil battles. I get it. It’s a human thing. We want easily defined good guys and bad guys, but sometimes reality is more interesting.2. The Chosen OneIt seems weird that there is always a Chosen One. I guess it makes sense when you think about the prevalence of “chosen ones” in the real world, but I still find them grossly overused. Too many fantasy novels with chosen ones and prophecies and all that garbage. I think we need more books where the Chosen One dies and everyone is screwed. That would be interesting.1. DragonsWhatever it is about dragons, fantasy writers love to use them. They love them so much that the genre is ridiculously saturated with them. There’s Eragon, Naomi Novik’s stuff, Funke, Genesse, etc. Everyone is using dragons. Don’t get me wrong, some of them are wonderful stories, but it’s gotten to the point where if I see a dragon on the cover, I won’t pick it up–with rare exception. It’s sort of like the vampire thing: there are simply too many novels out there with dragons as a centerpiece, and after seeing it repeated over and over, it gets old and pointless. We need novels about centaurs and ninja unicorns and pirate lawn gnomes… And there you have it. What overused tropes bug you?

World in the Satin Bag

Rejection: Little Blue Planet

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Well, another one. I love rejections. A little birdie named Ellira told me that Ray Bradbury had over 800 rejections before a single sale. With that thought looming over my head, it’s hard to really be all butthurt over rejections, don’t you think? Anywho, I shall send it to another magical place!

World in the Satin Bag

RIP: Michael Jackson

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According to preliminary reports, Michael Jackson has passed away at the age of 50 as a result of cardiac arrest. No other information other than that, really. Update: MSNBC and the LA Times are reporting he has passed away as well. Update 2: Mercury News has a bit more information about where the news of Jackson’s death came from. Update 3: More information from LA Times. Jackson was in a deep coma and died not too long afterwards. This is perhaps one of the most shocking deaths in a while. He was only 50 years old and one of my favorite musicians. Say what you will about his personal life, his weirdness, his plastic surgery, etc., the guy knew how to be an entertainer. You don’t even have to have liked his music or his style to understand what he did almost single-handedly to music. And there has never been someone with as much charisma and power on stage as Michael Jackson–though one could certainly argue that Elvis and Jackson were on equal planes. In any case, it is unfortunate that Mr. Jackson has left us. He had, apparently, made plans for, a comeback tour in London and now we will never see him in action again. He will be sorely missed, but remembered for the power of his music and his performances. To say a proper goodbye, I would love to embed a video of my favorite Michael Jackson song, but unfortunately the feature has been disabled on YouTube. So, I’ll just link you to the music video for Thriller, one of his most iconic works of musical art. Goodbye Michael, and may you find piece wherever you are now.

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