The Baccano of the Stand Alone Complex

Odd title, I know. But it has a point, I promise. I have this big problem with "The Stand Alone Complex." We're not talking Ghost in the Shell here, we're talking the stand alone novel. I am a writer who likes to write. I love my characters, I love my stories, I love my plot lines, and I love details about each and every little thing in my novels. I'm not a fan of the info-dump, so the only way to properly conduct a novel is to constantly chant: slow and steady wins the race.

What does that leave me? An excessively long (but good) story. It could be one story or a number of small stories making up the whole. You decide.

The issue with this is my sad luck of being an unpublished writer. A fact that is made more difficult by the truth that agents and publishers alike have cold feet when it comes to taking on new author's series. Not to say it doesn't happen. Look at J.K. Rowling and Stephanie Meyer. It's just tough. And honestly, I don't know what the fuss is about.

No story that has ever been published has as beginning or an end. I say this after having just been enlightened. (And now I am talking about anime.) I just finished watching Baccano! and I'm having a mini spaz-fest over the punchline to this series.

Wikipedia.org says this: "Each of the stories in the series involves several unrelated plots intersecting and crossing each other as events spiral further and further out of control. Immortal alchemists, mafia operated speakeasies, and many other elements of pulp fiction mashed together for a world straight out of the movies." I'd like to add that these stories occur within the framework of Carol learning a life lesson from the vice-president.

After watching 16 episodes of convoluted plot line and getting incredibly involved with all these characters (half of whom are immortal-so obviously you want to know what they've been up to and what they are going to end up doing) the series just ends. Well, it doesn't just end. Young Carol gets her lesson from the vice-president. And it is...Wait for it...There are no main characters and there are no beginnings or ends to a story.

The basic idea is that one person connects to many others whether they realize it or not. And because there isn't just one character, there is no end because characters keep getting added and once new characters are added you have to trace their past to get to know them, so there is no beginning either. Especially when you are dealing with immortals, gods, and other supernatural beings (I might add).

This makes me feel justified in writing books that are continuously moving back and forth among plot lines, characters, and time frames. It also makes me feel justified in writing long stories. Of course, not everyone in the publishing industry watches anime and that philosophy probably wont stick. But still, I don't feel so bad about writing a book about how someone who is older than the Flood (perhaps even caused the flood) has come to affect the life of a modern day shut-in. Not at all.

Oh, P.S. - I finished Stephanie Meyer's The Host and I loved it. Although, I'm hoping the next novel doesn't have a self sacrificing chick with split-personality love disorder. I think Stephanie has filled that quota in her professional career.

Judging.

Ever hear that saying: Don't judge a book by it's cover? I'm having one of those cringe moments where my guilty conscience is thrashing my judgment with a cat o' nine tails. That, and I'm kind of ashamed of myself.

You see, I have this inexplicable reaction to certain people. Sometimes, for no apparent reason, I just dislike people and everything associated with them. Even if I don't know them, I dislike them. I have this problem with Keira Knightly, Lindsay Lohan...and I had this problem with Stephanie Meyer.

Needless to say, I disliked Twilight and everything about it because I disliked Stephanie Meyer. At first I thought it was a jealously thing, but I don't dislike other authors who are just as famous or write in the same genre. I just didn't like Stephanie and I don't think I'll ever know why.

Anyway, I convinced myself that I was being an idiot. A lot of my friends recommended the Twilight Saga and I knew I should read it because it's popular and in my genre. So, I decided to face my dislikes and finally audiobook Twilight. It's two weeks later and I'm finished with the series. And I'm now officially a Twilight groupie.

This was one of the few series I've read that I didn't complain about when I wasn't listening. It was one of those few series that I found myself thinking about when I wasn't listening. I liked the voice actor. I wasn't bored by the story. Granted, I'm a little annoyed that my own YA is a little too similar (even though I'd never read Twilight before) and I'll have to rewrite a lot of it, but I'll get over it. I'm also a little sad I watched the movie before I read the book. I think it ruined the inevitable Edward Cullen infatuation...seeing Robert Pattinson when I think of Edward ruins my perfect man fantasies. He's so not hot in my world.

Many of my friends dislike Twilight because they say Stephanie Meyer is not a good writer. And I have to think to myself: This isn't literature, it's commercial storytelling. The story is brain fodder, something that is both interesting and engaging but not over the top when it comes to analytical thought. It's even a little predictable.

But, it's still good and I'll admit that I was wrong to have had such a seething dislike of Twilight. After having read her books and realized I misjudged, I'm no longer a staunch opponent of Ms. Meyer and I mentally apologize. I'm even looking forward to listening to The Host.

The point of this ramble to to remind myself that I should give everyone and every book a chance to impress me. Though I still don't like Keira Knightly or Lindsay Lohan, even after watching them act, I'm hopeful that one day I'll end up being wrong. I'd find it funny if they and I ended up being best friends or something (after I'm a famous novelist, of course).

As for Stephanie Meyer, I look forward to bumping into her at a conference one of these days and personally thanking her for not only writing an entertaining series, but making me realize I have this little problem that I need to work on fixing. Who ever said you can't teach an old dog new tricks?

Way too early

It's officially three o'clock in the morning and I've been "up" since...Wednesday morning? So, I've got multiple infections again, and I'm on a lot of meds. So, I guess that means I can't sleep either? Been having some wicked strange twilight dreams, not the good ones that give you story ideas, but the ones that give you night sweats.

Other than that, I still haven't heard back from any of the agents who either still have my query or have my partial manuscript. I'm still erring on no news is good news. I'm going to fall back on that for about a month, give the agents time, and then I'm going to send another batch of queries out.

I finally finished The Chronicles of Narnia. I enjoyed this series quite a bit. I could definitely see some parallels between Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials and C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia. I wonder if that was on purpose or not...

I started Twilight by Stephanie Meyer yesterday. Already, I'm beginning to see some similarities between This Sidhe of the Hill (my wip YA paranormal fantasy) and this novel. Mainly new girl meets moody boy who treats her like crap and has eyes that change color. But, the similarities end there.

Anyway, it seems that the voice actor for Twilight will do a good job, which makes me happy.

Updating

I've been so busy with the events of the past few weeks that I've been truly shabby with my blogging. So, small updates on everything will be occurring over the next few paragraphs. To make life manageable, I'm going to focus on two things.

The first is the happy news that after three rejection letters and a small edit to my query letter, I have a partial manuscript in the hands of a very likable agent. Also, I have not yet heard back from two of the other agents that have my query. At this point in time, although I'm quite impatient when it comes to other people responding to me, no news is good news. I wait with baited breath.

The second is an update on my audio-book situation. I've been attached to my iPod whenever my in-put in conversations and mental computing skills are not needed by the general public. Basically, when I'm driving, walking, gyming, working at the archive, or eating.

Since my last post I've listened to the following:

All three books in His Dark Materials, an astounding series by Philip Pullman. *hearts, stars, and horse shoes* This series is an OMG sort of series. It's way up there on my likability scale in language, content, characterization, and plot. I would recommend it to anyone, adult and child alike, and I think the man is a genius. Pure. And. Simple. Not to mention, I think the lay-out is similar to a number of my own books... So, I can see myself sitting down and having a spot of tea with Mr. Pullman about making people think about things that make them uncomfortable.

The first five books in Christine Feehan's Dark Series. Brilliant in theory, sub-par in execution. Feehan is good with back story and coming up with quirky things to say, but after five books, you get sick of the same character dynamics and repetitive sex scenes. There were times that I promised myself that if I heard the same adjective or scene set up one more time, I was going to kill myself.

The biggest transgressors: male obsession with touching hair and messaging neck, derivatives of silk and satin, pure male, like a great predatory 'insert sharp toothed animal here', and -of course- her flat stomach, narrow rib cage, long hair, and big eyes. BLEH It's fun once, but when all your characters start looking like interchangeable frail, anorexic Barbie and steroid induced berserker Ken dolls, there is an issue.

Despite that, the books were like cheese doodles. My definition of a cheese doodle: fluffy junk that tastes like crap with mildly appealing stuff on top of it. My definition of a Feehan book: fluffy junk that reads like crap with a mildly appealing plot line. Cheese doodles may look a little different from each other, but they still taste and digest the same. I could repeat that in terms of a Dark novel, but I think you get the picture. However, as much as I don't particularly like cheese doodles, I find myself eating them time and again. I kind of had that problem with Feehan's books. You get attached to the Carpathian males, and even though I'm a feminist and I hate the male-female dynamics of her books, I find myself digressing back to my socialized gender role and wanting to coddle Feehan's men.

And don't even get me started on the voice actress for the Dark Series, Juanita Parker. Besides occasionally messing up who was doing what to whom and confusing me for a millionth of a second, acrosst? Yes, she pronounced ACROSS as ACROSST...every single time. IN FIVE BOOKS. Didn't anyone correct the poor woman after the first one? I mean, I suppose I should leave room for the possibility that she has a speech impediment or something, but really? Really? She did so well all the rest of the time, I guess that's what bugged me.

I'm currently making my way through the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. I will admit that I have only read half of the books and thought it was high time that I actually made it through the whole series. I'm reminded, once again, of how much I love The Magician's Nephew. I will admit to liking the whole series so far, but will review it in entirety upon its completion. I'm currently on The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and will be finished with the series by Thursday.

If you want to know what stories get me all squirmy inside, you simply have to imaginatively address spirituality, creation, or the supernatural. At least at this moment in time.

The next series will be The Twilight Saga. *shudders* I really don't want to, but I feel like it has become a necessity in my market, so please don't judge. I've heard some horror stories and I can bet I'm probably going to be ranking on it when I'm finished a few weeks from now. But, after that will be some Laurell K. Hamilton and the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, so I'll try not to dig my eyes out with a spoon.

The first rejection

There is no title for today.

I officially sent out a few agent queries yesterday and I got my first rejection back today. Nothing flowery. Just a simple: "Not for me, but thanks." That's it. At least it didn't take four hundred form letter words to let me down that gently. I suppose I sound bitter, but I don't mean it to be. This particular agent wasn't anywhere near the top of my list and I haven't sent my queries to all of my top picks yet.

I have to write a summary of the book to send to those cats. That's an endeavor all in itself. I have a half-way acceptable 3 page synopsis at this time, but I need to make it tighter and more active. Then, from what I've heard through the grape vine I have to write a five page one too. I'm not bothering with that quite yet. I'll make one if someone asks me to send me one.

I suppose that's running into the process a little blindly, but I'd rather be blind than too stressed and nervous to even put one foot in front of the other. I don't want to end up sounding like one of those people I read on forums: too obsessed with getting the proper percentage of character chemistry, climax, and suspense in the first chapter to ever move on to paragraph two.

To make life better I have discovered http://www.playlist.com and it makes me happy. I've put a playlist for my book in my profile.

Theory of a Bored Girl

If you advertise cookies, they will come. Not the cookies, but the people who want them. I wanted a Bibliomation affiliated library card, and now I'm going to get one. For cookies. Yes, cookies.

Now, I'll be able to get my hands on Christine Feehan's Carpathian novels. I've also been given access to another audiobook database which will allow me to listen to Terry Brook's Shannara Series, J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings Trilogy, and C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia. I feel very lucky today.

So, about audio books. I took out Justinian's Flea and the Venetian Betrayal from the library and I didn't bother past the first chapter of either. They probably would have been interesting, but I couldn't stand the voice actors.

I must reiterate how valuable people who can use proper tonalities and inflections actually are to the human race. Let alone, storytelling. What Ever happened to the bardic tradition? What ever happened to telling stories to the kids?

I half want to become a voice actor because I can die in my sleep with more passion and life than these people can tell stories. The sad part is that one of them was an award winning voice actor. *shivers* uuhhhhg. Who is handing out these awards? Illiterate Zombies United of America? The Severed Larynx Society? Are they Financially backed by I Feel Nothing for Anything Incorporated and Monocles R' Us??

Seriously, people have to pay 40 bucks for an audio book. How much would it suck to pay that much money and find that you CAN'T STAND the voice actor? It's so bad that you can't even follow what's going on in the story. If my book ever becomes an audio book, I'm insisting on doing the voice-acting myself or at least helping to select the actor. I'll write it into my contract if I have to. What a way to ruin good literature. Bleck.

Anywho. I've been working on the Blood Heritage series. Slowly but surely. I'm going to have to rewrite some of it. Or just start the story after a certain point beyond where I fumbled as a freshman. It's all getting overhauled as it is. It's just a matter of what I do and do not want to keep...and what genre lines I want to follow. I could definitely make this a romance, but it's such high fantasy that I'm not all that sure. I'll probably stick with fantasy...even with the brothels and call-boys. Yeah, I'm having fun, can you tell?

le sigh. I digress.

Something to sink my Teeth into, Thank God for Neil Gaiman

I was starting to loose hope in all literature. The last few books that I've read have made me feel like a snob. I mean, I'm not even published yet, so who am I to criticize other authors? But I can't help it. I read and things jump out at me, both good and bad, and sometimes it can ruin or make a book for me. I am, by nature, a critical person. If it makes the authors of books I've dumped on feel any better, I'm the same way with myself. You think I'm being critical of you? Imagine how badly I beat myself up.

Anyway, I haven't read a kick ass novel that I had nothing bad to say about since...The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks. But hoorah, Neil Gaiman has re-established my conviction in delineating the good from the bad!

In the spirit of my new addiction to audio books I took out Anansi Boys from my library. I obviously knew who Neil Gaiman was prior to reading Anansi Boys. He's famous and you'd have to be living on a rock not to have at least heard his name. I've also seen a few movies based off of his books and I'm a fan of Amanda Palmer, who happens to be his girlfriend. And since I'm following Amanda of Twitter, I also decided to follow Neil. Then I told myself: You're following a famous author on Twitter, but you haven't read anything by him. Maybe we should remedy this, yes?

It took my a day to get through Anansi Boys. I liked it so much that I went and got the only other Neil Gaiman book my library carries: Stardust. And now, I'm officially going to go prowl the rest of Connecticut's libraries until I've heard them all.

Top three things I liked most:

1. The Readers. Lenny Henry, the reader for Anansi Boys, was awesome. He had great accents, read at the right pace, and hate the correct tonalities for each of the characters. Neil read Stardust and what can be better than the writer reader his own work to you? You know exactly how a certain statement was meant to sound. You know exactly where the dramatic pauses are. It's absolutely wonderful and I have no idea why more authors don't read their own books. Perhaps the ability to write doesn't necessarily mean you have an awesome ability to emulate old crones.

2. Neil has a great way of putting things. The way he creates metaphor and simile are fresh and flawless. I often found myself liking a character more because he had a different way of looking at the world. A funny way of looking at the world. Neil didn't come off as repetitive and none of his characters seemed dull or reflective of another character. His characters have life. I can close my eyes and see Anansi doing his soft shoe shuffle in the sand. I can see Tristran's strange fairy ear.

3. Anansi Boys was different. It wasn't a coming of age story...or was it? I like when a story can't be blatantly labeled. Stardust was a little more blatant, but I want to compare it to the story I listened to right before it: The Society of S by Susan Hubbard. Both are coming of age stories for halfling teens who must come to terms with what they are and who they want to be. Both are partly otherworldly, both must explore the part of them that is otherworldly, both of these teens also have separated parents. I think Stardust kicks The Society of S's tush. Why? Motive, climax, conclusion, story building, character building. I cared a lot more about Tristran Thorn than I did for Ariella Montero and Ariella was telling her own story and her story was much longer.

I could probably go on forever, comparing Neil Gaiman against the other authors I've been reading lately. But my husband said it best: Neil Gaiman is famous for a reason. Amanda Palmer dates him for a reason. Yes. Clever girl.

Now, I have to ponder another issue.

So far the top three books I've read this year are: The Name of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks, and Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. These are my winners because, not only are they good stories, but they are good pieces of literature. I didn't read either of these books without at some point stopping and thinking: "Wow, that was a great line" or "What an interesting way of putting it". Nothing I read in these books made me mentally draw back and think: "Did you really have to write that?" Nothing felt repetitive or contrived. The characters, both major and minor, were interesting and engaging. I cared about what happened to them. I cared about the worlds the authors were operating in. There were sold conflicts and resolutions and development and growth. Nothing was stagnant.

My issue is that these are all male writers and their main characters are also male. I find that concerning. Granted I've purposely been trying to read more male writers...but I just finished two novels by females and neither was as wonderful as it could have been.

Small addictions and The Society of S

After finishing Acheron and realizing just how much I've been missing by not having audio books in my life, I'm officially addicted. Of course, every addiction has that financial constraint and, seeing as how I am not yet a New York Times Bestseller, I certainly don't have the cash to feed the need for forty dollar audio books.

However, I do happen to have a library card and a rather sad excuse for a library not too far away from my humble abode by the quarry. After some investigating I came away with The Society of S. I was so very excited for this book because it was a vampire book and promised to have a new and exciting twist on modern vampires. I was not all that impressed.

First of all: The voice actress, Joyce Bean, was very boring. This may or may not have been on purpose. I think the main character, Ariella Montero, is sort of lack-luster herself and perhaps Bean was reflecting that. I just thought she read too fast and lacked the tone and inflection an audio book reader should have, especially for a pre-teen young woman (even if she is a cloistered little thing). It is (perhaps) Bean's fault that I thought the book was kinda 'eh'. You do run the risk of the voice actor completely dropping the characters when you listen to audio books.

I can't say specifically what about The Society of S I didn't like. But let me try and break it down to the little things that bugged me most.

For one, I didn't like Ariella addressing the reader. She'd say something like: "For me, the letter 'S' is blue. Is it that way for you too?" Can't stand that. I feel like it completely derails the plot. On top of that, I despised the journal entry wrap-up at the end. "My life continues to suck, I'm confused about everything, my parent's still aren't together, and I'm a vampire. Oh, and I'm writing all this down so that perhaps someone who gives a shit about vampires can make something of it." Really???

Two: It was too much the coming of age story and none of the conflicts that bring Ariella into her ultimate self get resolved. I think it was the lack of conflict resolution that got me feeling sour about this book. There wasn't really a climax and there wasn't really a solution. The book moves from good to bad to uncertain with all the uncertainties and conflicts having been stacked up inside the book and poorly addressed. I don't want to sound condemning. Although, I'm sure I have. Hubbard does a good job of building the world and the characters and the conflicts and then she does nothing with them. It's like following someone around all day long with the expectation that something amazing is going to happen and then you find that, at the end of the day, nothing happens at all. I followed Ari throughout the book, expecting something half-way interesting to happen to her (because Hubbard keeps stacking the boxes higher and higher and something has got to fall one of these days), but nothing does and I ended the book feeling really disappointed.

I think that if Hubbard wanted to leave open her options for expanding on Ariella and her situation, then she should have concluded on a more suspenseful note. At least in that manner the reader would be more enthusiastic about picking up another of Hubbard's books. The general feeling at the end of the book was: life's a bitch and then you die. That didn't make me feel really excited to read the next book, if there is one. Quite obviously, I haven't looked. Because I wasn't convinced enough by the first book that this character and her problems are worth my continued interest.

Overall, I give The Society of S three out of five stars. There was some interesting world and character building on Hubbard's part. The pacing and structure were good. The building of suspense and possible conflict were enough to keep me listening to Joyce Bean, but it lacked climax and resolution which ultimately made me loose interest in following the character or the author.

On Acheron

Alright, so I bought the audiobook: Acheron, by Sherilynn Kenyon. I was attached to my iPod for three days. I've never read any of the Dark Hunter Series (or a lot of romance), so I'm a bit out of the circle of friends, but I think it's fairly stand alone, quite addictive, and not overly graphic like some romance novels can get.

First, I really enjoyed how this book was laid out. The first part of it is told through journal entries written by Acheron's sister. Then there is a section told through Acheron's eyes. Suddenly, history skips forward 11 thousand years and Acheron is faced with a situation that could reveal the past that the reader has just learned about. I loved how dark and moody it was, (at least in the beginning).

I admittedly preferred the first two sections over the last. It may just be me and my major preference for fantasy, but I find too many ways that urban fantasy can come off as cheesy. Sure, you can connect with it more, but I didn't like the change in tone. It just felt like the story turned from dark and serious to just another cheesy paranormal romance. I know that's Kenyon's market, but I thought some of the scenes in the final section just ruined it.

It made me cringe psychologically when Acheron walked in on Tori, Pam, and Lisa singing Fergalicious. There wasn't anything in the first two sections that made me smile and I was laughing at the stupidity in the final section. I realize this could be a way to show that Acheron has assembled some sort of enjoyable life and it lends gravity to the idea that his sister's journals might ruin that. It's just a personal thing, I guess. I didn't hate section three, it was enjoyable in it's own right. I just preferred sections one and two more.

That, and I noticed a lack of variety in character reactions. It started to sound a little repetitive. I'm not sure if that's just because I listened to it. Perhaps I wouldn't have picked up the addictive use of "cock" if I were reading instead of listening.

Other than that, I really enjoyed Acheron. Acheron is such a dark, moody character and you really get to know what a horrible past he's had and why he wants to keep it a secret. I definitely read the book for him!

Flip Flop

Sometimes I hate when I get bitten by the Muse. I want to work on everything all at once, and of course, that's not possible. I've been working on the Blood Heritage Series, added another forty pages or so...

And I'm starting to brainstorm ways to get around my issues with As Above, So Below. It's more important that I work on this story because it's going to be the sequel to That Which Lies in Darkness and if TWLID gets published, then I'm going to have to have As Above, So Below completed shortly there-after. The book was done, but I've decided to scrap the current layout and overhaul it.

I'm thinking of switching up the plot lines. Amaya's Passion occurs at the end of As Above, So Below and I think that is what is catching the plot lines up. I spent too much time in Pandemonium and Amaya's development and not enough on the surrounding conflicts. So, I'm thinking of making As Above, So Below the third book and moving The Ineffable Word to the forefront. The Ineffable Word deals more with Lilith and Caroline, but I can interchange it with some of the major plot lines in As Above So Below and flesh out the Holy Children and the Letters. I think that's what the readers are really interested in at this point because I didn't work very closely with either in TWLID.

On another note, I'm really enjoying writing about the other Sorocin Holy Children that live in Chesterfield. I think I'm going to make a book of short stories to go along with the series. I've also decided that I now want to call the series The Holier Than Thou Series. That will probably change next Tuesday, but it's what I'm enamored with at the moment.