Writing after dark

Check out Start & Run an Art Teaching Business by my friend Tanya Freedman. She ran a successful art teaching business for several years. In her book she shares not only ideas for different types of art teaching businesses, but also entrepreneurial advice that can be so helpful for creative people who haven't thought about the business side of things.

You can find out more about the book, and read an excerpt on her web site.

Tobias Buckell's first novel is an awesome science fiction novel, full of: swash-buckling adventure, steam punk, nanotechnology, and even a star ship.

More importantly, the characters have depth, seem plausible, and captivated my interest. And they're not all white! Actually, most are shades of brown (being either Aztec or Afro-Caribbean).

The preface to this book intrigued me, but then the first thirty pages seemed to drag. I started wondering if this was really a fantasy novel, and a bad mish-mash of cultures. I kept reading, however, for the promise of the preface, and was rewarded in spades, as the steam punk kicked in, adventure kicked into gear, and explanations that made sense were provided.

I'm looking forward to reading his second book, Ragamuffin.

I used to read short stories fairly often. My teen years were spent with a subscription to "Fantasy and Science Fiction." Even later, I continued to read short stories collected in anthologies.

But in recent years I found myself reading almost exclusively novels. I stumbled upon the Vision anthology accidentally--My friend Kate Baggott won second prize in the 2007 University of Hertfordshire Writing Award, and I won a copy from her blog.

Since reading these stories, I now have a renewed interest in short stories. I picked up an issue of Maison Neuve, and might start reading science fiction short stories again.

Vision is an interesting anthology. The prize-winning short stories are all excellent. I loved some of the short-listed stories as well, but others not so much. Even when reading stories that did not work as well, however, I liked seeing what the author did with the vision theme. Sometimes the vision is an integral part of the story, as in the first prize "The Snow Child" by Nathalie Abi-Ezzi, about a Finnish woman's vision of a child. Other times the vision is only one piece of the story, as in Kate Baggot's "The Three Wives," in which the third wife taps into the world of visions.

Two books arrived today from Amazon (finally spending gift certificates). Now that I have them in hand, I can hardly wait to read Crystal Rain and The Lies of Locke Lamora.

I read about Crystal Rain on Pat's Fantasy Hotlist. I couldn't resist the idea of Caribbean pirate steampunk. I read about The Lies of Locke Lamora on many blogs, including Pat's. I don't know if I needed to read another fantasy about a thief, but how could I resist reading about the leader of the Gentlemen Bastards?

I picked up the curious incident of the dog in the night-time based on a recommendation. The idea of a book told from the point of view of an autistic teenager seemed unusual.

What I didn't expect was such a fast-paced emotional read. I finished this book in less than a week, which is unusual for me these days. At first I was drawn to the story of this boy who is trying to figure out who murdered the neighbor's dog. And I loved the quirkiness - he decides whether he's going to have a good or bad day based on how many red and yellow cars he sees on the way to school - after all, it's no less arbitrary than someone deciding based on the weather (if that person spends the day inside).

But this book is much more than a mystery. Although we do learn "whodunit", we also go on an emotional roller coaster, as Christopher learns the truth about his family and explores outside his comfort zone.

Although I knew this was the second book in a series, I decided to give it a try anyway. One character's story interested me, and there were a few neat bits, but overall it didn't hold my interest and I put it down after about 100 pages. Maybe I would have appreciated it more if I had read the first book in the series.... or the previous series that lead up to this.

But I found too often that the writing itself annoyed me. For example, the book starts with a chase through a crowded market. Nice action scene. Except when the action stopped for a brief paragraph describing someone's clothing. That might have fit if a character had also stopped, but in the middle of a chase, I expect description to be woven into the action.... a detail here and there as the action proceeds.  Other places I felt like the writing could have been tighter and with fewer "X was Y" constructions. But maybe that's just me being a writer.

I won a copy of Vision: An Anthology of Winning Stories from the 2007 University of Hertfordshire Writing Award in Kate Baggot's blog contest. You see, Kate, besides writing the Babylune blog and freelance articles, writes fiction and won second prize with her short story "Three Wives".

Of course, I read this story as soon as the book arrived. I loved the story and felt I could read a novel about these three interesting women. I keep finding myself wanting to know more about them.

I'll read the other stories as well, but maybe not right away.

What about other books I was expecting? I've given up on receiving the Scalzi book and Marjorie Liu's ARC. I don't know if they were mis-delivered, if my postman wants my books, or if they were never sent, but after a couple of months, I'm giving up.