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Have Book, Will Read #31

Around here, it’s been all spring showers, slowly warming temps, and beasties big and small getting active again, including black bear sightings in the neighborhood. I’m more than ready to say goodbye to winter, and trade cozying up in blankets for reading outside on the deck. But before the cold fades entirely, here are a few of my favorites from the past months. I hope you have as devilishly a good time with your spring reads as I seem to have had with my winter ones!

Recent Reads: Hell, yeah!

I kicked off 2023 with Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White, a book I confess I picked up simply for the amazing cover art but then found intriguing enough to buy. This YA horror novel follows trans boy Benji, on the run from the violent cult who raised him and infected him with a bioweapon designed to finish the work they started when they unleashed Armageddon upon a climate-ravaged world.

Poetically beautiful and furiously visceral in equal measure, White’s debut paints a chilling picture of a future where religious extremism allies with dubious science to force one group’s radical agenda on others, to the point of virtually obliterating humankind. The use of religious rhetoric is ruthlessly effective at driving home the justification used by the cult for genocide, and acts as a counterpart for the sweetness and acceptance of Benji’s new queer found family. Trigger warnings for body horror—forced body transformation is a huge part of the plot, so if you’re squeamish, this isn’t one for you.

To carry on the hell theme, here’s Hell Bent, book 2 in Leigh Bardugo’s Alex Stern series. The first book, Ninth House, blew me away, with its twisted tale of secret magical societies at Yale University and the darkness woven into the very walls of the elite educational institution. In the sequel, the protagonist, Galaxy ‘Alex’ Stern, has one goal: to break her mentor Daniel Arlington out of hell, where he landed in the first novel. At the same time, she must keep up her grades, assume Darlington’s responsibilities in Lethe House, and keep her superiors from finding out she is breaking every rule out there to save the Virgil to her Dante.

This is a series that puts the dark in academia. Murder, mayhem, intrigue, and endless amounts of magic, often of extremely dubious morality. If any of that sounds good to you, then this is the series you need. Those familiar with Bardugo’s young adult fantasy work (especially the Shadow and Bone series and the Six of Crows duology, which are currently on Netflix in a fantastic adaptation) may find themselves at odds with the vicious modern world of this adult fantasy series; this is an entirely different beast and excellent in its own right.

For a change of pace, I turned to a recent graphic novel release. Constantine: Distorted Illusions, by Kami Garcia and Isaac Goodhart, is a really fun approach to the curmudgeonly and world-weary DC Comics character. A warlock, occult detective, and occasional con man, the foul-mouthed Hellblazer John Constantine is known for his cynicism and ruthless cunning. In this version, however, we are given the absolute gift that is a young, untrained, 18-year-old John, all too ready to give established magical society the middle finger and to dive into reckless spellcasting for the sheer unbridled punk rock pleasure of it.

In Distorted Illusions, Constantine is in the USA, supposedly on a gap year to study with a powerful magician. Instead, he becomes the lead singer of his best friend’s punk band. But when the band starts to dabble in stolen magic in order to create memorable performances, a spell gets out of hand, and they accidentally summon something that’s way beyond their control. This graphic novel is a blast, and teen Constantine is surprisingly endearing and a joy to read. 

The Wicked Bargain by Gabe Cole Novoa lends a touch of sweetness to my devilish theme. This YA historical fantasy is Novoa’s debut, and a very nice one indeed. Set in early 19th century Caribbean against a background of unrest and discontent toward Spanish colonialism, this graceful pirate tale explores themes of gender identity and family, as well as dipping into the seldom explored waters of Latine pirate history. And the magic is delightful!

The story begins on Mar León de la Rosa’s sixteenth birthday when el Diablo pays a visit to their father’s pirate ship. Mar discovers that, to save their life at birth, their father made a deal with the devil. And now, the deal is up. But when the storm that was supposed to drag the entire crew down to a watery death fails to kill Mar, el Diablo offers a new deal: Mar’s soul for the release of their father’s. Now Mar has a month to learn to control their magic and figure out a way to save their father without giving themself up in his place. It seems like an impossible task, but with their new allies—Bas, the son of a rival pirate, and Dami, a demonio with a secret agenda—Mar may just stand a chance to trick el Diablo.

Now Reading: In the wild…

I’m only a couple of chapters into Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett, and already finding it delightful. Set at the very start of the 1900s, the tale follows gruff and socially awkward Cambridge professor Emily Wilde into the far-flung north of a fictional Nordic island nation as she researches the elusive Hidden Ones, the final chapter missing in her epic project: the first ever encyclopedia of fairy lore. Written as Emily’s field journal, the acerbic narrative style is fabulous and I’m very much enjoying Emily’s no-nonsense opinions on everything from the locals to the weather.

To Read: Return to New Atlantis!

I’m a huge fan of the Tarot Sequence series by KD Edwards. The Eidolon is the first novella in a spin-off series that follows the younger characters from his novels. Edwards’ world of New Atlantis is so rich, and his characters are just so wonderful! I treated myself to a special Rainbow Crate edition with gorgeous interior art and a reversible dust cover, and it was absolutely worth every penny… The only reason I haven’t devoured it yet is that I had about a million library books on hold so I have to get through those first! 😉

Here’s to warm days and many, many good books ahead. Happy reading!

Spring in Connecticut!
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Con Round Up: Boskone 60

This month I went to my first in-person convention since 2020, Boskone in Boston, MA. It was lovely being back at my ‘local’ con, but weirdly stressful, too. To paraphrase a friend, ‘we’re all a little feral now’, and have to re-learn how to do the event thing! By the end of each day, I was quite ready to retreat to my hotel room with a book… 

That said, I did have a great time… I was on four programming items. I led a Friday night meet up for young writers and ended up having a delightful chat to the two youngest participants — 10 and 13 years old. And a shout out to the pink stuffed axolotl that kept us company. On Saturday morning, I was in charge of organizing the Rapid Fire Reading for Broad Universe, an organization I belong to which supports women and non-binary people working in speculative fiction. We had eleven readers, and a nice variety of genres and writing styles to enjoy in five-minute bite-sized snippets.

I was also on two panels: I moderated Silver Haired Warriors on Saturday night, with Dana Cameron, Zin E. Rocklyn, and N.T. Swift, which I thoroughly enjoyed and yes, if you’re curious, we did decide that older characters are more than ready to take charge of spec fic, and that experience absolutely wins out against the hastiness of youth. On Sunday, I got to play with the other side of that coin, with Writing Realistic Teenagers. R.W.W. Greene was our trusty moderator, and my fellow panelists were Michael Stearns and Brad Abraham. One of my favorite takeaways was to remember to work from the heart and not the brain when writing teens, and to channel not necessarily your own memories, but the emotions that lay beneath.

There were plenty of good programming items to watch, and as usual the hard part is choosing! I caught a great panel on Friday called Digging the Past, with Darlene Marshall (M), Melanie Meadors, Katherine Arden, and Walter Jon Williams, where my favorite quote came from Katherine: “The best historical fiction wears its research really lightly.” (Along with a reminder that the writer does not owe the reader perfect accuracy.) After my Saturday reading, I stopped by the International Fandom Meetup, which only had a few of us attending but provided a nice break from the larger program items. 

Saturday afternoon, I managed to fit in two program items before my own panel. First off, How to Kill…a Character, an energetic debate with Max Gladstone (M), Brenda Clough, Bracken MacLeod, P. Djèlí Clark, and C.S.E. Cooney. Brenda Clough reminded us that nowadays, “no one has plot immunity”, while P. Djèlí Clark brought up the differences between how writers and readers experience a character’s death. Bracken MacLeod warned us that there should be emotional consequences, that a character’s death should feel ugly, even if they are evil and absolutely had it coming. The other Saturday item I caught was the Horror on Saturday group reading, with Nicholas Kaufmann, Bracken MacLeod, Max Martelli, and F. Brett Cox, a fantastic taster of great writing!

On Sunday, I stopped by at Seven Easy Steps to Taking Over the Universe, with Marshall Ryan Maresca (M), Christie Meierz, Mur Lafferty, Dana Cameron, and Steven Popkes, an absolutely hilarious discussion which concluded that: minions need good and fashionable jumpsuits, preferably with five pockets; that better toilet technology is a must, as well as a history degree (immortality is a maybe, but debatable); that every overlord-to-be needs a good slogan AND a good title; and that cats may already be our overlords…  The last panel I attended was The Shadow of the City, a discussion of cities as characters in urban fantasy with Walter H. Hunt (M), Sharon Lee, Darrell Schweitzer, and Carole Ann Moleti, and I think my favorite quote comes from Carole Ann Moleti: “Walk the city. (…) Observe the people, because that’s the story.”

All in all, a wonderful and inspirational event. Thank you to the New England Science Fiction Association for once again organizing a successful weekend, and for inviting me to be a part of it!

Afternoon tea break — view from my hotel bedroom
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Happy New Year!

I usually do an end-of-the year wrap up post, but last December I was very much Not In The Mood. So instead, you get a HELLOOO 2023 post. (It’s January 31. It still counts. Right?)

For the first time since my teens, I made no resolutions for 2023. I have goals, yes, both personal and for my writing, but those are ongoing and not connected to the new year. It’s been oddly freeing! I’m one of those people who really likes the symbology of fresh starts: New Year’s Eve, my birthday, heck, I’ll even take the new moon. But this time, I just… couldn’t. With the resolutions. And so, I stepped into 2023 as clear and clean as a blank page.

That said, I have lots of exciting things ahead that I’m looking forward to this year. In February, I’ll be back in person at my beloved ‘local’ convention: Boskone, from February 17-19 in Boston, MA. Run by the New England Science Fiction Association, this is a great event. Just big enough to attract plenty of fantastic writers and publishing folk, but small enough so that you can actually find people to connect with and not get overwhelmed.

I’ll be moderating three program items: the group Rapid Fire Reading for Broad Universe; a meet up for young writers; and a panel on older characters in SF/F. If you’re attending Boskone, come and say hi!

I also have stories in two upcoming anthologies. Fit For The Gods will be out in August (there’s an official cover reveal coming soon, so I’ll wait to share it, but you can already add it to your Goodreads if you want.) This anthology has SO MANY great authors, and it’s thrilling to have had my story selected. My own story is a take on Odysseus and Circe, from the point of view of Scylla. I can’t wait to share it with the world!!! 

From the blurb: “Featuring stories by a bestselling, cross-genre assortment of some of the most exciting writers working today, an anthology of gender-bent, queered, race-bent, and inclusive retellings from the enchanting and eternally popular world of Greek myth.”

This will also (hopefully) be the year of Femmes Fae-Tales, an anthology of fae-related stories by women and non-binary authors from the SFFChronicles.com forums. (Click here for more information.) Many of us were part of the group that put together DISTAFF, published in 2019, an anthology of sci fi tales, and we’re excited to share this foray into the world of fantasy. My own story is one of a dark descent into the addiction to wild magic… Cover reveal coming soon!

As for works in progress, I’m halfway through the second in a sci-fantasy novella trilogy about a trio of ghost hunters in southern Brazil a few decades into the future. I hope to finish all three books and revise in time to start searching for a home for my novellas by summer. I’m having such a blast writing this; my characters are so much fun and so is the magic I’ve created for them! It’s also dark at times; there are zombie-ghosts, which is something I NEVER thought I’d write, seeing as I’m super scared of any zombie media! (When I realized my ghosts were going to be zombies, my reaction was ‘Oh no. OH NO!’ But the story needed them, and so be it…)

Usually in my end-of-year wrap up, I give a shout out to my favorite books of the year. This time, I popped up a recap on Instagram instead. Choosing just ten books is an impossible task, so I limited my choices to authors who were new to me in 2022. Check out my selection here!

As for 2023, I’m off to a good start with reading, and have so many more books ahead! Some of the 2023 speculative fiction releases I’m excited for: Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo (Alex Stern #2); The Witch King by Martha Wells; the new Murderbot novel, System Collapse, also by Martha Wells; Threadneedle by Cari Thomas; The Wicked Bargain by Gabe Cole Novoc; The Eidolon, the new Tarot Sequence spinoff series by KD Edwards; A Power Unbound, the conclusion to Freya Marske’s Last Binding trilogy; Dark Moon, Shallow Sea, the first in a new epic fantasy series by David R. Slayton; and the Being Ace anthology. I’m sure I’ll be adding many, MANY books to my TBR list, and that’s just upcoming releases, not counting the older books already on that list.

Wishing all of you a fantastic 2023, with or without resolutions, and here’s to plenty of great reads and great words (for the writers among us) ahead!

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A Winding Thread: Coffee Shops and Tea Houses

A Winding Thread is an occasional blog segment which looks at tales that connect by theme, setting, character, or vibes. (For previous installments, check out Green Magic and Books and Journeys.) With the winter cold settling in for the season, I’ve gathered a trio of stories that touch on coffee and tea shops, because the only thing better this time of year than a book and a mug of tea is tea and a book about tea! 

My picks are: Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune; A Psalm for the Wild-Built, by Becky Chambers; and Legends & Lattes, by Travis Baldree.

Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune follows the newly-dead (and not happy about it) lawyer Wallace Price, as he settles in at Charon’s Crossing, a teashop that serves as a waystation for the recently deceased as they prepare to move onto the Afterlife. Wallace is an embittered man who has somehow throughout life lost any spark of joy he might once have had. But in his days spent with the teashop’s owner, Ferryman Hugo Freeman, Wallace rediscovers the taste of joy, and gains a taste for tea — and for Hugo himself.

This delicate and moving novel is not only a love story, but an ode to the cycle of life. Without ever being trite, it discusses death in all its many shapes and colors, and was a sweetly satisfying and emotional read. So, in a book about death, where does life — and tea — come into it? 

Klune’s teashop serves as a fictional respite, a temporary breathing space. Hugo, the owner, has already been through his own journey, which leaves him free to simply be there for the souls passing through his domain. The book, then, focuses on the teashop’s ghostly patron: Wallace. In his path to growth and acceptance, tea is ever-present, from that first personalized cup upon his arrival, to the shared enjoyment of the tea plants in the garden, to the gentle cadence of watching customers come and go like the tide. The role of tea in this is simply to be there, a steady, warm presence that buys Wallace the time he needs to come to terms with his own life story.

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers introduces a whole new world, a post-industrial wonderland where humans have learnt to live in harmony with each other and with nature. But even the most idyllic settings cannot stop people from discontent, and so it is for Sibling Dex, who is searching and failing to find meaning in their life. Dex has left their sheltered life in a monastery to be a traveling tea monk, tasked with offering patrons all over the land a moment to breathe, or to confide, or to lament. But when Dex meets one of the elusive robots who live in the wild, they are forced to consider the question: ‘what do people need?’ And to think about what they, themselves, want from life.

This tender and hopeful novel continues the narrative of change that we see in Klune’s book, but the focus of the story is on the ‘tea shop owner’ themselves. Tea, here, serves as a reason to reflect, to pause life and think about what comes next, and where one’s path should lead. Yes, tea still exists as a respite, but only for the patrons. For Dex, tea begins as an adventure, an opportunity for transformation. But what happens when the kettle brews up more questions than answers; when the necessary change must come from within and not from without?

If Under the Whispering Door makes us think about acceptance, and A Psalm for the Wild Built creates space to consider our own path in life, then my third pick, Legends & Lattes: A Novel of High Fantasy and Low Stakes by Travis Baldree takes those two themes and builds on them, arguing that even when we know exactly where we’re going and have embraced our choices, there’s still room to grow. This charming tale introduces us to Viv, a battle-weary orc warrior who is determined to hang up her sword and open the first ever coffee shop in the city of Thune. Amid the trials and tribulations of starting a business, Viv soon finds out that no one, not even formidable former warriors, can go it alone. And the life she’s been dreaming of will only become a reality once she opens her heart to the new friends she meets.

Refuge is the central theme in this one. Legends & Lattes is similar to my second pick in that here, too, we have a character seeking change through something new. But it is also different: when the desired life change is set in motion, instead of inner discontent it brews up a hunger for more, leading to new friends, a new found family, and a sense of belonging. Only when this is achieved, can the refuge that Viv builds for herself truly come to be.

Respite. Reflect. Refuge. In truth, all three words could apply to any of those three novels. Whatever the particular meaning that tea (and coffee) take on in each of these tales, they are bound by a common thread of taking time to breathe, to figure out one’s place and path in life. This trio of quiet stories focuses more on the internal than the external, gifting us a variety of answers for common desires: the desire to be free from the roles we’re given, often by ourselves; the desire for self-understanding; the wish to belong. And if we come away from reading with a little extra warmth in our hearts and the urge to sip a nice cup of something? Well. I’ll just pop the kettle on.

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Five First Kisses: the Understated Edition

A few years back, I published a blog post on First Kiss scenes (go here to see the original post). I thought it was time for a follow up…

A story doesn’t need romance to be a good story, and honestly, in those cases where the author has clearly shoehorned a romance in simply because they feel there needs to be one? Just drop it! A nicely written platonic arc is just as satisfying. That said, a well-crafted romantic arc can be a pleasure to read, whatever the genre or subgenre. And a key convention in romance, even when it’s not the main focus of the story, is of course THAT moment. I’m talking about the kiss. 

Usually THE KISS is the peak of a character’s emotional arc, the crescendo, the singing chorus of angels. The first kiss scene is often written in a way that’s supposed to sweep a reader away, helping them dive into that storm of feelings. But there’s merit in the quiet moments, too, in kisses that are perfectly understated and perfect for it. Most of my examples are from YA (or YA-adjacent) novels, simply because teenagers and first kisses tend to go hand-in-hand (or, uh, mouth-to-mouth?). But hey, adult characters get to play, too!

(SPOILERS for the following books: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe; Mister Impossible; In Other Lands; The Ship of the Dead; Nettle & Bone)

Ari and Dante (Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, Benjamin Alire Sáenz)

This is technically the characters’ second kiss, but the first one that actually matters! This is a book full of short, understated moments that hold a world of feelings in very few words. It’s a masterpiece of how to say a lot with a little, and so it stands to reason that Ari and Dante’s kiss scene would be equally as quiet. I have so much love for this scene, it feels so real and manages to hold so much tension. And that last sentence? Perfection.

“Try it again,” I said. “Kiss me.”

“No,” he said.

“Kiss me.”

“No.” And then he smiled. “You kiss me.”

I placed my hand on the back of his neck. I pulled him toward me. And kissed him. I kissed him. And I kissed him. And I kissed him. And I kissed him. And he kept kissing me back.

Declan and Jordan (Mister Impossible, Maggie Stiefvater)

Another Stiefvater book (see Five First Kisses), because I love her Raven Cycle world so much! This is from the second book in the sequel Dreamer trilogy, and the oldest Lynch brother Declan is with Jordan in her studio. She’s painting a portrait of him. Their relationship has been building to a point of inevitability, and the kiss scene is only really surprising in that they haven’t kissed before. I love the way Stiefvater builds the romance in as just another layer of Declan-and-Jordan, one aspect of the complexity that is a human relationship of any sort. Also, art.

She kissed him. He kissed her. And this kiss, too, got all wrapped up in the art-making of the portrait sitting on the easel beside them, getting all mixed in with all the other sights and sounds and feelings that had become part of the process.            

It was very good.

Elliot and Luke (In Other Lands, Sarah Rees Brennan)

I absolutely adore Elliot Schafer, he’s an amazing character with a brain (and a mouth) that just never stops. So when golden-boy Luke Sunborn corners him right before a battle, it feels only right that Elliot would not allow his thoughts to take a backseat to his emotions. This one brings humor into the moment, too, which is right on point for Elliot. And who says kiss scenes can’t be a bit funny?

“I’m so what? Are you actually about to insult me right before you go off to war? Oh, I don’t believe this, you loser—”

He did not get out another word past “loser”, because Luke crossed the floor, took Elliot’s face in his hands, and kissed him.

Wow, Elliot thought. Wow, Sunborns are very grabby.

Magnus and Alex (The Ship of the Dead, Rick Riordan)

We meet genderfluid shapeshifter Alex Fierro in the second book of the Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard Trilogy, and Magnus is immediately smitten. So when they finally kiss in book three, you’d expect some fireworks, no? Instead, Riordan gives us this little gem of a scene while Magnus and Alex are trying not to freeze to death on the ice. Honestly, it’s very much how I would probably react if I was focusing on not dying instead of paying attention to my crush…

Then, before I even knew what was happening, she kissed me. She could have bitten off my mouth and I would have been less surprised. Her lips were cracked and rough from the cold. Her nose fit perfectly next to mine. Out faces aligned, our breath mixed. Then she pulled away.“I wasn’t going to die without doing that,” she said.

Magnus’ reaction post-kiss is priceless:

“Well?” She frowned. “Stop gaping and let’s move.”

Marra and Fenris (Nettle & Bone, T. Kingfisher)

Sometimes, a non-kiss can be just as powerful as a kiss. And in the case of Nettle & Bone, an amazing fairytale with the most understated of slow-burn romances, this definitely holds true. This scene is the story-closer, taking place after the villain is soundly defeated and everyone is heading off on their version of happily ever after. So you’d expect a bit of fanfare when Marra asks Fenris to stay with her instead of parting ways. Instead, we get the following. (Also, in case you’re wondering, yes, Bonedog is in fact a dog made of bones. And he is a Very Good Boy!)

“I think I’d like that,” said Fenris.

Marra sagged with relief.

She had been so focused on what he might say that she hadn’t quite expected what he might do. So it came as a surprise when he wrapped both arms around her and put his lips against her hair. “I think I would like that very much,” he murmured.

“Oh good,” said Marra against his neck. And then she would have kissed him or he would have kissed her, but Bonedog decided that they were wrestling and jumped up and barked soundlessly at them both.

Bonedog!
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Have Book, Will Read #30

It’s been perfect autumn weather here in Connecticut: crisp temperatures, bright leaves, blue skies. (And the occasional soft rainy day, too!) Autumn marks the return of cozy blankets and warm cups of tea, of snuggling up to the dog to read a good tale. Here are some of my favorites from the past months…

Recent Reads: Gods, godlings, immortals.

Kelly Robson’s latest novella High Times in the Low Parliament is an absolute delight, and so beautifully written that every page is a gift. And 10/10 for amazing world-building! Robson’s England is a female-centric (as in, men do not exist at all) psychedelic wonderland, where magic and the mundane coexist side-by-side and fairy folk are considered minor deities, almost god-like in their reach.

Pitched by the author as ‘A lesbian stoner buddy comedy with fairies — about Brexit!’, this is a light-hearted romp through a version of 18th-century England. Flirtatious scribe Lana Baker is sent to work at the low Parliament, where delegates are trying to avoid a hung vote. Failure will bring a devastating flood and a return to endless war, unless Lana and her new friends, the grumpy fairy Bugbite and the enchanting delegate Eloquentia, can work together to save humanity. The perfect book for when you need something bright, happy, and just a little ridiculous — in the best sort of way!

While we’re on the subject of divinity and floodwater, I’ve just finished No Gods for Drowning by Hailey Piper, a recent release. There’s nothing lighthearted about the grim world Piper presents to us, awash in blood, violence, and the promise of death. The old gods have fled the land of Aeg, and the monsters they had kept at bay for centuries now threaten to drown the city-states and hunt down mankind. The different threads become hopelessly entangled: a ritual serial killer seeking to bring back a god to save the land; a detective duo racing to catch the killer while the city of Valentine falls apart around them; and an evacuation officer blessed by the divine. But can they solve an ancient mystery that holds the key to the gods themselves before the sea takes them all?

Part dark fantasy, part detective noir, Piper serves up a wonderful cast of characters who fit together like jagged, broken jigsaw pieces and yet somehow manage to complete each other perfectly. The worldbuilding is really interesting, too, with religion as the frame for a rich tapestry that incorporates culture, legislation, and the judiciary in a way that make a terrible sort of sense in this world the author has woven. Piper’s gods are vicious and primal beings, blood-drenched and alien, and the humans that revere them are almost as savage in their beliefs as the deities themselves. A dark but gripping read.

Nona the Ninth is the third installment in the fabulous Locked Tomb space-fantasy series by Tamsyn Muir. Overflowing with in-jokes for readers and flashes of contemporary memes and pop culture, Nona may be the funniest book in the series — quite the accomplishment as it’s set in a world that manages to be both pre- and post-apocalyptic at the same time and is the literal epitome of a dumpster fire. However, this is Muir’s talent: to deliver immensely joyful scenes and dialogue against what is, quite frankly, an absolutely horrifying backdrop.

Nona brings us familiar names and faces — Camilla, Palamedes, Pyrrha — and the enigma that is Nona herself. Nona woke up six months ago with a fractured mind and a stranger’s body, navigating a city that is falling apart with child-like wonder. Blood of Eden want Nona to be their ultimate weapon. Nona would rather go to school, hang out with her friends, pet dogs, and spend time with her completely dysfunctional family who she loves beyond all reason. Nona is a brilliant character; a main point-of-view who has no idea what’s going on, when everyone else (including the reader!) knows more than she does. It’s a great addition to the series, and I think my favorite so far.

My last pick for this month is The Old Guard graphic novel series. I watched the movie adaptation and really enjoyed it, so I figured it was time to check out the source material. There are three volumes currently out. The first, Opening Fire, covers pretty much the entire movie (I was pleased to see how closely the script keeps to the graphic novel!), and introduces the characters and world. The second, Force Multiplied, continues the story, and the third, Tales Through Time, is what it says on the tin: a compilation of one-shots from each of the characters’ pasts.

The premise of The Old Guard is that every few hundred years or so, a new warrior is cursed with immortality upon death. There’s no scientific or spiritual explanation. It’s not transferrable, it’s not predictable. Drawn to each other, these immortal soldiers form a family of sorts, plying their trade sometimes for money, sometimes for a cause. But in the 21stcentury, staying off the radar is increasingly difficult, and some fates are indeed worse than death. The worldbuilding is very good throughout this series, but the cast of characters is the winner here, with some absolutely stunning creations. These are not superheroes. They’re very much morally grey. We’re constantly reminded that, despite being virtually unkillable, they are still human, and fallible. (I love them all.) And the series allows for some interesting discussion on the effects of immortality. I thoroughly enjoyed the books, and I’m looking forward to the second movie adaptation!

Now Reading: An end to a dream?

I’ve loved Maggie Stiefvater’s Raven Cycle since I first found The Raven Boys, many years ago. Greywaren is the final book in the sequel trilogy, following the Lynch boys in the months after Ronan graduates from high school and delving deeper into Dreamer lore. 

I think my favorite thing in the Dreamer Trilogy has been the chance to get to know Declan, the oldest Lynch brother. In the original series, we only meet Declan through the eyes of his brother and his friends, but in this trilogy, he’s allowed to blossom. Ronan was always my favorite character in The Raven Cycle, but now, in the sequels, Declan definitely brings stiff competition. I’m only a couple of chapters in, but already stuck in ‘last book dilemma’: I need to read! But also, I’m already mourning the end of the dream…

To Read: Quests and mysteries.

I have two books sitting in my to-read pile. The first is Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher, aka Ursula Vernon. This sounds like the best sort of fairytale: a younger daughter sets off on a quest to save her sister and rid the kingdom of an abusive ruler, facing impossible tasks with a motley crew of adventurers (including a demon chicken!). Or, according to the publisher’s website: “This isn’t the kind of fairytale where the princess marries a prince. It’s the one where she kills him.”

The other one I have waiting for me is Mur Lafferty’s Station Eternity, the first of a brand-new series called The Midsolar Murders. Take the classic murder mystery format. Set it loose on a space station. Voilà! Mallory Viridian just can’t seem to stop getting involved in murder cases, even in space. Now she’s stuck in the middle of an extraterrestrial whodunit, and she has to solve the crime before the list of victims grows… I do love a good murder mystery, and I can’t wait to get started on this one!

Here’s to lots of good books ahead to get us through the last months of 2022! Happy reading!

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Let Me Like You: Writing Great Characters

Where’s the spark?

As any epic fantasy fan knows, there are currently two big fantasy franchise prequel shows on screen. The first is, of course, The Rings of Power, set thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings take place. The second, for fans of a darker brand of fantasy, is House of the Dragon, set some two hundred years or so before Game of Thrones.

With the shows airing side-by-side, this is a perfect opportunity to look at how the two productions have handled character creation within the scope of epic fantasy.

There is an ever-present debate in writing about what is more important: plot or character. You’ll hear terms like ‘character-driven’ or ‘plot-heavy’, but ultimately the divide comes down to whether a writer (and reader) prefers a focus on character or plot. I’d argue that well-written characters can easily carry a weaker plot but that, however fabulous your plot is, you still have to create characters that interest readers. You still need that spark of connection that drives the need to read, to discover, to embrace.

And here is where the two shows, for me, part ways. Whatever the plot weaknesses, or the Tolkien-lore-related discrepancies, The Rings of Power has something crucial going for it: characters I’m invested in and want to follow to the end. Fierce, socially inept Galadriel; stoic and honorable Arondir; a young Isildur, desperate to find his path. Yes, I want more of the awkward bromance between besties Elrond and Durin. I want more of Halbrand teetering between duty and denial. I want all the Bronwyn content, please!

House of the Dragon, on the other hand, is failing miserably on the character front. Now, I love myself a morally gray character, a scoundrel, a snarky yet lovable baddie. I don’t need characters to be likeable, in a hero, light-side-of-the-Force sense of the word. But I do need to like them. I need to be able to root for them, or at least want to follow their arc, even while screaming, “NO! You absolute dumpster fire of a human, don’t DO that!” But HotD has exactly zero characters that I like, and this, for me, is a huge problem.

The original TV show (and books) had great characters that I really, truly loved. Arya Stark. Jon Snow. Tyrion Lannister. Brienne of Tarth. Grey Worm. The list goes on. Not every character I enjoyed was a good person, or was good all the time. But I liked them, and I wanted to see where their stories would end. The prequel show, however, is sorely lacking in interesting characters. I dislike them all so thoroughly, and find them all so boring in their awfulness, that I’ve pretty much given up on the show at this point. (Of course, the production isn’t helped by the decision to time skip every few episodes, bringing in new actors to play aged-up versions of characters and adding to the disconnect.)

Last year I took an online writing course with YA author Maggie Stiefvater, known for her rich characters. There was a lot of emphasis on spending time with your cast before even writing one single word, and after watching the trainwreck that is House of the Dragon, I can see where she’s coming from. I’ve always considered my own work more plot than character driven, but even so it’s always been clear to me that if you care about your cast, if you write characters people can care about (yes, even if they’re evil), then at least half the job is done: to light that spark and give readers a story they can connect to.

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Over the Hill: Older Characters in Fantasy and Sci Fi

One of my favorite reads last year was The House in the Cerulean Sea, by TJ Klune. Besides the delicious plot and characters, one of the things I liked best about it was that it gave us a forty-year-old protagonist, caught up in a reckoning of what he’s done with his life, where he wants to go from there, and how to deal with his expanding waistline — all that great stuff we start to think about when we hit our forties and fifties.

It’s not that often that speculative fiction has older main characters, at least, not in books with singular or few points of view. When there are bigger ensemble casts, with multiple points of view, this is far more common. Think Tyrion Lannister in A Song of Ice and Fire, or Chrisjen Avasarala from The Expanse. Or the screen adaptation of Good Omens, which chose actors in their fifties for the roles of Crowley and Aziraphale. I love all of these characters, but in a larger cast their age becomes diluted, more of a balance for younger characters and less of a leading voice.

There are certainly books out there that check this particular box of allowing older characters to take center stage. One that comes to mind is the fantastic City of Blades (Divine Cities #2) by Robert Jackson Bennett, with General Turyin Mulaghesh. She’s a foul-mouthed and one-armed badass on the verge of retirement, and she’s everything I didn’t know I wanted in a fantasy protagonist. Another great entry in this category is the novella Burning Roses, by SL Huang. In this retelling of the myths of Red Riding Hood and Hou Yi the Archer, the main characters, who thought their days of adventure were in the past, must come out of retirement and join forces to battle evil once again. But the truth is, sci fi and fantasy — particularly fantasy — tends to focus on younger characters, at most in their thirties (and that’s often pushing it!).

If it’s rare to see older main characters, it’s even harder to find stories where they are allowed to be the main romantic protagonists. This is where, once again, The House in the Cerulean Sea shines. Another that does older romance beautifully — and was probably my absolute favorite book of 2021 — is Light from Uncommon Stars, by Ryka Aoki. This gentle love story between a former violin prodigy who made a deal with the devil and an alien space captain hiding out on Earth in a donut shop warmed me all the way down to my toes. It’s wonderful to see books out there that remember that romance isn’t just for youth.

There will always be an interest in coming-of-age stories, and tales that deal with young adults seeking their place in the world. However, I like to think there’s just as much space for books about the challenges and regrets that come with age and experience. Characters that are not so much ‘over the hill’ as seeing the world from the heights of hard-earned perspective. Hopefully, the success of books like the ones I’ve mentioned here, as well as TV shows such as Our Flag Means Death (yes, I know it’s not exactly fantasy, but middle-aged pirates! In love!!), will remind us that we can put people over forty in the spotlight and let them thrive.

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Summer 2022 Updates

It’s summer! Which means it’s time for a rousing game of ‘what’s been happening in J’s world?’

Writing

First off, I sold a story to a really exciting anthology. Fit For The Gods is a collection of diverse and inclusive retellings of Greek myths, edited by Jenn Northington and S. Zainab Williams, to be published by Vintage/Knopf. I know there were a LOT of submissions for the open call, so I was utterly thrilled that my modern-day Brazilian version of Circe and Odysseus was selected! Go here to read more about this project and to see the full list of authors.

The new fantasy anthology by the authors of DISTAFF is still in the works. It’s been rough getting moving, as COVID brought one disaster after another to our team. But I have hopes that this will be our year, and I can’t wait to share my story of fae seduction and addiction to wild magic with everyone!

Moving away from short stories, I’ve been working on something new for a while. It gave me some trouble as I searched for the right voice and angle, but it’s finally clicked, and I think this is THE version that will move forward. It doesn’t have a title yet, but I’m really excited about my sci-fantasy tale of ghost hunters, set in Brazil several decades into the future.

Community

In other news, my team and I wrapped up the 2022 virtual New England SCBWI conference, and feedback has been mostly positive. There were some truly great workshops and presentations, and you can click here to read my post-conference post. This marks the end of my tenure as conference director — what was supposed to last two years lasted three, due to COVID, and I can honestly say that I really enjoyed it, though I’m also happy to pass on the role to next year’s directors. I’m not stepping fully away from our fabulous regional team, however, as I’ve taken on the job of gathering and organizing Member News for our quarterly NESCBWI newsletter.

As for other organization updates, I decided to join the British Fantasy Society, after taking part and thoroughly enjoying one of their online events earlier this year. I also took the plunge and applied to the SFWA, recently renamed the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writer’s Association, and am now a full member.

I’m still avoiding large gatherings and am not planning to go to any in-person conferences or conventions in 2022. For next year, I plan to attend at least BOSKONE in February and NESCBWI in late April/early May, both of which will hopefully be in-person. I would really like to attend a horror convention, too, to connect with some of my horror community friends in person, so let’s see if I can make that happen…

Personal

On a personal level, we travelled to Austin, Texas in June to visit family, and had a wonderful few days. What a great city! We spent a day in neighboring Wimberley, too, and came home in love with the local landscape.

July brought our Big Family Trip: after four years (due to the pandemic), we finally returned home to visit our families and friends in Brazil. We managed to fit in a visit to the Iguaçu Falls, and to the beach, too! Leaving was, as always, bitter-sweet — we love our life in the USA but part of our hearts will always remain in São Paulo.

Now we’re home, with September all too close. This year we see our youngest off to college, so that makes both of them gone. Fingers crossed that it will all go smoothly!

Also, I turned fifty in April, and have been slowly working on completing my ‘50 for 50’ project — a list of fifty things I want to accomplish before my next birthday. Some are small and free, like the letter I wrote to my younger self or the walk I plan to take on that trail that I haven’t explored yet. Others require time and/or money, like the brand-new tattoo I got yesterday! And some of the things on my list are shared experiences, like the back painting my youngest did for me or the family visit to a local Renaissance Faire… It’s been a fun project, and I may just repeat this next year too, though perhaps on a smaller scale!

Anyway, that’s it for updates, and I hope you have lots of lovely creative and personal plans of your own to carry you through to the end of the year, no matter how big or small!

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A Winding Thread: Books and Journeys

A Winding Thread is an occasional blog segment which looks at tales that connect by theme, setting, character, or vibes. (For the first installment, go to Green Magic.) This time, I’ve gathered a trio of stories that touch on journeys and books — after all, it’s July, and what could be better than traveling with a good book (or ten)?

My picks are: In Other Lands by Sara Rees Brennan, The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern, and the graphic novel Coming Back, by Jessi Zabarsky.

In Other Lands, by Sarah Rees Brennan, published in 2017, is a standalone young adult fantasy novel that plays with the magic school trope, sending the young, bookish (and delightfully obnoxious) Elliot into a fantasy realm where scholars are underappreciated, fighting abilities and war are considered the leading traits in human society, and where all the other creatures (elves, dwarves, harpies, mermaids, etc.) that share the land are deemed lesser than their human counterparts.

Elliot, being Elliot, is excited at the chance to immerse himself in books and learn all he can about everything that is not warcraft, and less delighted by the extreme physicality of much of the Borderlands camp. He has the (mis)fortune to fall into a tangled friendship with fellow students Serene-Heart-in-the-Chaos-of-Battle (an elven warrior) and Luke Sunborn (of the legendary Sunborn clan), the biggest complication being that Elliot — unloved and ignored at home and bullied at his old school — has no idea how to do friendship in the first place. It is largely a coming-of-age tale, as we follow Elliot in the four years of training camp and watch him grow in sociopolitical awareness, compassion, and even save the world a few times.

Books in this work serve very clear purposes. Both the camp library and books themselves are a haven, a place to retreat and to hide. They’re also Elliot’s weapon of choice, in both a defensive and offensive sense, used to decipher the world and to conquer a place in it. With knowledge gained in books, Elliot goes on several missions to other lands and helps bridge the cultural differences that threaten to push the quick-to-violence humans into battle instead of peace talks. Here, books are both the familiarity that Elliot clings to when he crosses into the Borderlands, and the means to set out on journeys and problem-solve the many issues that exist in this flawed magical realm. 

Books and stories have a far more overarching role in Erin Morgenstern’s The Starless Sea, published in 2019. In this delicately woven tale by the author of The Night Circus, a book is the key to a magical place where story is everything. In the labyrinthine Harbor that sits above the underground Starless Sea, stories are past, and present, and future, and occasionally out of time entirely. They are puzzles, and riddles, and answers — sometimes to questions the protagonists had never thought to ask. And intertwined with the main story, there are shorter parallel tales that weave a background tapestry that comes sharply into focus as all the threads begin to align.

The Starless Sea is at heart a tale about finding yourself, even if you have to lose yourself to do so. When grad student Zachary Ezra Rawlins comes across a mysterious book in his college library, the last thing he expects is to find a scene inside depicting him as a young boy. His attempt to understand leads him below ground to the Harbor, a place that is more than just a library; it is a realm of lost cities and seas, of love stories and sacrifice. As Zachary travels the paths beneath with fierce Mirabel and handsome Dorian, he begins to unravel the tangled threads of his own story and that of his companions, and the new story that emerges feels both surprising and inevitable.

Here, we have tales that serve a wide variety of purposes: they are doorways, they are destination, and they are purpose — destiny itself, if you will. The stories (within stories, within stories) are the entire journey from start to end. Books are not the practical haven that they serve as in Brennan’s novel. Instead, they are the entire and all-consuming world. One thing the two books do have in common, however, is characters thrust into strange worlds who must rely on the information they find in books and stories to navigate those alien waters.

My last pick is a graphic novel, Coming Back by Jessi Zabarsky. This one’s the outlier, not just in its narrative format, but because it is less about books themselves — though one of the two main characters is a librarian — and more about the stories that form the backbone of a society. Published in 2022, Zabarsky’s work looks at what happens when people grow rigid in their ways, adhering too strictly to the stories that make up their culture without allowing room for change.

In a community where almost everyone is magic, shapeshifter Preet is the strongest of all. Her wife Valissa, however, has no magic, but as the town librarian, it falls to powerless Valissa to face an attack upon their repository of knowledge and laws. Valissa sets out on a spiritual voyage through the magical lands accessed within the library’s depths. In the meantime, Preet is forced to leave everything she knows behind when she adopts a child and breaks one of her community’s most sacred laws.

While they are both on their own journeys — one literal and one magical — Preet and Valissa learn very different lessons. Valissa, that change and fluidity are necessary, and Preet, that there are many ways to live a life, and her community’s way is only one possibility. When they are finally reunited, things do not go smoothly, but eventually they realize these different lessons can be combined to lead their people on a new path. 

The journey here is knowledge; it’s about leaving old, outdated stories behind and creating others that make more sense. There is an intersection with The Starless Sea, in that both books deal with allowing stories to end when their time is over, and making space for new stories, for new directions in which to travel. In Valissa’s words, “We’re strongest when we can learn from each other, as our ancestors did. We’re strongest when we can bend and change to help one another.”

I’d like to make a brief note on the role of libraries; in all three works, libraries serve as gateways. This is metaphorical in In Other Lands, with the library as a house of knowledge that can cause transformation. In Coming Back, the library is a literal portal, leading to a shift in values and to making room for new knowledge. And in The Starless Sea, we have the college library, which provides the key in form of a book, and we have the Harbor, a library that is an entire storyworld in itself.

Ultimately, this trio of tales deals with how books affect us: on a personal level, in our interactions with others, and as a wider society. Stories can be a refuge, a validation, a weapon, a path, a purpose, a treatise… or simply bring joy.

“We are all stardust and stories.”

Erin Morgenstern, The Starless Sea