Novel in a Blender 4

It's been awhile since I've pondered my overflowing bookshelf.

Before I jump into today's influential selection, I must share the news that I've just pre-ordered Jacqueline Carey's latest book, Naamah's Curse. Though my life has been insanely busy the past few weeks, I am anxiously awaiting its delivery and will put everything on hold while I shove my nose between the pages and refuse to come out until I reach the last word. There are a lot of books in my to-be-read pile but this one will leap to the top without a second thought. Unless, of course, George R.R. Martin's long awaited A Dance With Dragons happens to magically appear on bookshelves before then. I'm not holding my breath. Good thing, or I'd have been dead several years ago.

Deep cleansing breath. There, that's better. I'll have to wait for HBO to air the "Game of Thrones". That will appease me. Hopefully. My expectations are set pretty high.


Back to my bookshelf and back to when Trust was something else and told through a female pov. I was reading books like Emily Devenport's Shade. The tale a girl on the streets doing what she has to in order to survive. Good gritty stuff. It was about this point where I started to get the idea that Ms. Wildstar needed to go and Ms. MC needed a rough and tough outer shell that then slowly evolved into the emotionally damaged, angry and paranoid woman that is Delyn.

There are two other books, Scorpianne and Larissa, but while a fun read, they weren't as good as the first one. The word formulaic comes to mind. But if you're looking for female sci-fi main characters, they might be worth a quick read through.

Novel in a Blender 3

Where was I before I got so distracted? Oh yes...


While I am a big fan of the Orson Scott Card's Ender Saga, my favorite novel of his is Songmaster. Based on his short story "Mikal's Songbird", Songmaster follows Ansset, a beautiful young boy whose perfect singing voice has the power of amplifying people's emotions, making him both a potential healer and destroyer.

The depth of emotion portrayed this book is what makes it so great. You truly feel for Ansset. This is the first book that made me cry while reading. Not that crying stopped me from reading. I just had to grab a tissue so I didn't get the pages wet.

Whenever I reach an emotional scene in a novel I'm writing, I try to achieve the depth in found Songmaster. I want to make you weep!

This novel does deal with homosexuality, so if that's an issue for you, be forewarned, but it's a great read. If you're searching for inspiration on how to pack more emotion into your novel, I can't think of a better place to look.

Novel in a Blender 2

Back in the mid-eighties, I branched out from mainly reading fantasy and fell upon sci-fi. These books were littered with male main characters. Which is fine, yet, not as fun for a young women looking for someone of the same gender to identify with that wasn't playing a dutiful secondary character or love interest.

Ms. Wildstar was having a hard time finding a spine, and I needed some inspiration, darn it. I wandered off to the bookstore.

What's this, a women in a lead role and a man as her underling? I like it!

I quickly realized that this was the final book in a series, but it sounded so good, I didn't care that the other books weren't available in the store at the time. When I finished it, I hunted down the original three books that had been published ten years previous. The first of which turned out to be C.J. Cherryh's first published novel, the Gate of Ivrel.

In trying to get back to my original mindset now that I'm working on the sequel, I've pulled the Gate of Ivrel back off the shelf. Unlike many of my other old favorites, this one is still as good of a read as it was before my critiquing eye ruined my joy of getting lost in a novel. It's currently in my coat pocket so I can squeeze a few pages in where ever I happen to find the time.

Neither of these novels appear to be sci-fi upon first glance at the cover, which is probably what drew me to them in first place -- having just come off a fantasy binge. There are swords, magic and horses, and gates, various planets and time travel! Yes, young readers, there were transportation gates before any Stargate movies or series.

This is where the seed for Jumping came from as well as the inspiration for a certain Mr. MC's name, whose original name was much more befitting of Ms. Wildstar's early draft than that of her current bossy incarnation. Though, you won't find Mr. MC's teen self milling about the Barthromians, he's been reincarnated -- the only character to date to have had that honor.

If you happen to be looking for a book/series with an old race that used time travel and transporation gates, a strong female lead, magic, swords, an honorable but conflicted male character, no swearing or overly adult situations, this one might be for you. Who knows what seeds might get planted in your head.

Novel in a blender

My more recent novel efforts have rather flowed onto the page by themselves. Mostly thanks to NaNoWriMo and the need to produce a plot and a host of characters out of thin air in thirty days. However, my first novel took forever to write and was influenced by all sorts of things. The novel grew and morphed as life experiences, books and tv shows were added to the blender.

Where did I fall in love with sardonic character voice, assassins and the idea that assassins can be heros too? Right here.

Vlad Taltos is the man. His telepathic jhereg companion is a close second. Their thoughts and private conversations still make me laugh outloud. I've read this book -- along with the rest of the series -- so many times over the years that the spine is more cracked than printed. Pages are falling out. The cover is taped on. Yep. I enjoy it that much.

When the internet hit and authors got websites, I even reached out of my writing cave far enough to email dear Mr. Brust to gush about his wonderful book. And he emailed me back. That was many, many years and many computers ago. I don't remember exactly what was said on either end, but I do remember that it made my day. Likely several of them.

That's when it hit me that authors were real people, not just names on book covers that I looked for on my weekly trips to the bookstore. It also then occured to me that I liked to write and I happened to be a real person too. hmmmm