Title: Liszt's Kiss
Author: Susanne Dunlap
Genre: Historical Fiction
Length: 330 pgs

Summary: Anne, a young pianist about to enter Parisian society during the height of the Musical Romantic Era (1830s, 1840s), has just lost her mother to the cholera epidemic. Her father forbids her from playing the piano. As an outlet, her mother's friend, Marie d'Agoult, invites her to a piano concert where she sees Liszt for the first time. Anne's life is forever changed from the moment she matches eyes with Liszt...

Excerpts:
pg 111 - The more she watched, the more she was persuaded that although Liszt leaned in close to Anne and touched her hands to show her how to achieve certain improvements in her technique, everything he did was not really for the benefit of his pupil but was in some fashion on display for Marie herself: the way he moved, the incline of his head, the frequency with which he smiled or cast a soulful glance at the high ceiling, never turning to look in Marie's direction, yet ensuring that every gesture, every comment, reflected off Anne and she its light over her.

Why should you read this book?
This book is a good example of a story that chose third person omniscient, but might have been better with first-person multiple point-of-view. Dunlap wrote her third-person narrative from the views of her characters anyway, so I'm confused why she didn't write it in first-person. I felt completely detached from the entire story. I read it because I liked the young doctor Pierre...he was the only character I liked. (Which means Vonnegut was right: always write at least one character for the reader to like.)

The insipid way Anne reacts to things, the two-dimensional father with a mea culpa reason for his coldness, the way the ending felt thrown together...I admit, I'm disappointed in this book. The last two paragraphs, however, were amazing. And yes, I do read the last page first to decide if I'll like a book. Sometimes it doesn't work out.

Think you're just a simple fiction writer? That your romance doesn't have anything to do with horror? I find that the best fiction has elements of multiple genres, or at least tricks from multiple genres. You want to add tension, or make your antagonist creepy and scary? Try applying some of these horror fiction hints to bring out that creep factor. Even if in the end you decide it's not for you, it will make for a great writing exercise!

Horror Fiction Unearthed
by Shaun Hutson

Getting a Reaction
Can you hear scratching at your door while you're reading this? Nothing too insistent. It might just be a sound you haven't heard before, a banging in the radiator pipes possibly. A creaky floorboard? That's the way a lot of horror stories start. Something small and apparently insignificant grows gradually until all Hell is let loose, sometimes quite literally. ( Read more... )

Personal Terrors
A question I've been asked more than any other over the years (apart from, "Why don't you get a proper job?") is, "Why do people read horror?" The answer is that people genuinely enjoy being scared, as long as it's from the safety of their armchair or cinema seat. You only have to look at some of the biggest grossing books or films of the last thirty years to see that. ( Read more... )

Digging Up Plots
Another tip. Don't try emulating your favourite authors. There's nothing wrong with admiring a particular writer but remember, this is your work. I read a lot when I was younger but my influences were, and still are, cinematic so books don't have to be your sole guide in learning how to construct stories. Films do it more directly and more succinctly (assuming they're any good). They also teach you how to get character across using dialogue and actions rather than boring everyone stupid for twelve pages describing someone's upbringing and views on life. Given that character might become mincemeat after a few pages, it makes sense. ( Read more... )

Short and Scary
Use short sentences, short paragraphs and short chapters. Most people read in bed, on trains, on the bus. Places like that. If your chapters are short then people will tend to think "I'll just read the next one," then, on finding that too is short, the next one. So on and so on until they find, to their surprise, they've finished the book and if you finish a book quickly, you tend to think it's good (even if it isn't...). That's my biggest trick. It also helps to keep your dialogue tight and as direct as possible. ( Read more... )

Explicit or Unseen?
What seems to divide people most when it comes to horror is the "graphic or suggested" question. Do you describe the full horror of a death or a monster or do you hint at it. Well, to be honest, there are arguments for both but there is also the possibility that most good horror is a mixture of the two. Getting back to my examples of earlier. The Exorcist builds slowly, as does Alien, but eventually something has to be shown. ( Read more... )

Article found here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/getwriting/module21p

Title: Posion Study
Author: Maria V Snyder
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 361 pgs

Summary: Yelena has murdered a man. And the punishment for death, for any unnatural death, even accidental, is execution. Luckily, the Commander's food-taster has just died, and Yelena, being the next up for execution, is offered the job by the Commander's right-hand man, Valek. As her tasting and smelling skills improve, Yelena's survival instinct (a droning sound emitting from her mouth) turns out to be a sort of raw magic. And in a land where magic is outlawed, punishable by death, Yelena finds herself facing death from all angles.

Excerpt:
pg 104 - "You remind me of a pretty bird, willing to sit on the windowsill as long as nobody comes too close, but prepared to fly away if somebody does."

Why should you read this book?
It's an entertaining read. I was most intrigued by Valek, who surprises Yelena with the facets of his personality, and therefore the reader. The political intrigue wasn't the most groundbreaking, but then, the story was more a fantasy coming-of-age than anything else, so I can forgive that. I liked it enough to look for the next book, Magic Study, but I have to admit that Yelena's horrible past just didn't really come across with fervency. But once again, that may not have been the point.

Title: A Poisoned Season
Author: Tasha Alexander
Genre: Historical Mystery
Length: 306 pgs

Summary: It is the start of the summer Season in London, and everyone worth speaking to is whispering about Mr Charles Berry, an alcohol-and-woman-happy man claiming to be the lost descendent of the dauphin (that is, heir to Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette). Lady Emily Ashton, our heroine, becomes suspicious of Mr Berry as items once belonging to his "beloved grande-mere" are stolen from unsuspecting peerage about town. As deaths occur and the thief begins to stalk Emily, rather than running away or hiding behind her dear friend Colin Hargreaves, Emily uses her cleverness and curiosity to solve the mysteries plaguing London.

( Excerpts )

Why should you read this book?
This was just the sort of book I needed to read. The voice (written in first person) is amusing, conversational, yet intelligent. We are given detail about the London Season and high society, without it dragging the story. Motives were plausible, and everyone had a story to tell. Even the bit players. And they were interesting stories. Alexander didn't sugar-coat her description of life back then, especially in terms of relations between men and women, married and single; yet, everything was written tastefully. Read this book for an engaging heroine, a cozy mystery, and a fun read. Fun, I think, because of the pacing and the lively characters. This is the second in what I assume will be a popular series, and I'm thinking of going back to read the first book, which I have yet to do. Give it a try, I think you might like it!

Title: Miss Wonderful
Author: Loretta Chase
Genre: Regency Romance
Length: 342 pgs

Summary: Mirabel Oldridge thought she had everything under control on her Regency property. Her eccentric, distracted father was happily studying his plants. She managed to keep her family home safe from opportunistic managers (at the expense of her one chance at love and marriage). But now, now there is a new problem; one she never thought she would have to face: Alistair Carsington. Carsington is a hero from Waterloo sent to convince Mirabel's town, to convince Mirabel, that they need a canal that would ruin their picturesque countryside. It certainly doesn't help that, despite her innate hatred of Carsington and all he threatens to change, Mirabel begins to find herself attracted to the oversensitive, immaculately-dressed, and maddening idiosyncrasies that define him.

( Excerpts )

Why should you read this book?
This is the first romance I've read where the heroine was older than the hero. Made for an interesting dynamic. I liked how Carsington and Mirabel, though they obviously came from familiar moulds, had defining characteristics and backstories. When I first began this book, I rolled my eyes at yet another Regency romance. But then Carsington became much more than a dandy with a limp, and Mirabel was something more than just an old maid who dropped everything for her family. Even the distracted father had a reason for his eccentric ways. Read this book for plausible motives to the characters' actions. I personally would have liked to see a little more character development, but then, maybe it wouldn't have been a strict romance. A good, quick read for those romance readers looking for a little more depth and heart to the fairy tale.

Title: The Thirteenth Tale
Author: Diane Setterfield
Genre: Fiction
Length: 406 pgs

Summary: Margaret Lea has a secret about her birth; a secret that haunts her to this day, and affects every decision she makes. She is the daughter of an antique book dealer, and so is his helpmate in running the bookshop that maintains their lifestyle. One day, a letter arrives for Margaret, written in an awful hand, requesting that she journey to the home of the infamous writer, Vida Winter. Miss Winter is infamous because of her past, or lack of it, for with every interview there is a new rendition, and none of them are true. There is no record of Miss Winter's birth, her childhood...nothing to say who she was before she appeared in the literary world. Miss Winter, it seems, wants to tell the truth of her past for the first time, ever, and she has chosen Margaret for the job. After thirty (or forty, perhaps?) years of public speculation about the past of Miss Vida Winter, and the plot of the missing thirteenth tale from her book Thirteen Tales of Change and Desperation (only twelve were released), Vida Winter is ready to speak the truth.

( Excerpts )

Why should you read this book?
Because it is a love story to readers and writers. This just might be my favorite book if 2007, just as Elantris was my favorite of 2006. I will be hard-pressed, I think, to find another book that immediately enfolded me in its mystery and charm, leaving me dazed in my everyday activities as I contemplated the characters and plot. Every character is tangible and sympathetic, the setting is distinct, and the plot is original (to me, at least). The style is romantic in the classic sense of the word, yet entirely believable given the narrator's (Margaret) deep appreciation of books. We're never given a time period, yet I'm left with the impression that Margaret lives in the 1930s, 40s, or perhaps even 1950s.

Reading this book left me with sensations of DuMarier's Rebecca, Bronte's Wuthering Heights, LeFanu's The Wyvern Mystery, and other such romantic, gothic, books. Read it for the intense characterizations. Read it to know the language of a bibliophile speaking with another bibliophile, describing favorite works. I feel as though The Thirteenth Tale has changed me and so my writing: it's let me believe that there are readers willing to entertain a more romantic and classic style from a modern author, and that is good news indeed.

Title: Paperback Writer: A Novel
Author: Stephen Bly
Genre: Fiction
Length: 342 pgs

Summary: Paul James Watson is your typical midlist paperback novelist. He lives a typical middle class life with a devoted wife, loving children, and a cabin in the woods of Montana. His life is a little too "perfect, flat, routine, unimpressive," and his spiritual life is about the same. Thus, Watson turns to his writing to bring the spark back, by indulging in his character, Toby McKenna, a sort of James Bond/Indiana Jones persona. As Watson writes his next novel, McKenna begins to take over, and soon the lines of reality and fiction blur to the point that Watson "may well be lost."

( Excerpts )

Why should you read this book?
This was an interesting premise: we're in the mind of a paperback writer. He talks to his semi-famous character, Toby McKenna, on the drive home from his motel stay. Half of the time he isn't actually doing anything, he's just "living out the scene before it happens." Which makes for one confused reader. At first, I thought it was so clever, how the narrative seamlessly switched from "reality" to "fiction." I could relate; after all, what writer doesn't go back and mentally rewrite a conversation gone wrong, or imagine a future conversation so that you get the words just right?

But it got old pretty quick, especially when I lost track of what was actually happening, who was actually real, and what was the point of the narrative. Watson talks to Toby, and when Toby annoys him with his debauchery, he tells Toby to go away and starts a dialogue with God, though, God never replies. By the end of the book, we have some sort of closure, and we know who was real and who wasn't, I think, but the "real" plot is so haphazard that my disbelief was not suspended, and I feel cheated. An interesting idea with a not-so-great implementation.

Title: Hood: The King Raven Trilogy (Book 1)
Author: Stephen R. Lawhead
Genre: Fiction
Length: 472 pgs

Summary: Rhi Bran ap Brychan, heir to the Elfael throne, has never been much for responsibility. Not since his mother died when he was a young boy. Bran is headstrong, selfish, and egotistical; rebellious against his callous and and tyrannous father. But now his father is dead--killed by Norman invaders determined to take over the Welsh and their lands. The people of Elfael have been enslaved, made to pay taxes they have not the money for, forced to work lands that are not their own and thus making it impossible to tend to the year's harvest: the people of Elfael are starving, and they need a leader. Unfortunatly for Bran, he is their last hope.

( Excerpts )

Why should you read this book?
For one thing, it's the story of Robin Hood set in Wales. Rather than the Saxons fighting the Normans, it is the Welsh, who already have fought with the invading Saxons and come to a grudging level of symbiosis, who now fight against the encroaching and greedy Norman-Ffreinc. Welsh stories tend to fascinate me, if only because they haven't had much play time in the fiction world, at least by my understanding. However, in the last couple of years I've read some excellent books about the Welsh, such as Nectar from a Stone by Jane Guill.

This book, while well-written, could have used some editing in the length, I think. The character development is thorough, and for that reason alone you should read this book. The setting description is vivid and doesn't take away from the pacing of the narrative. Yet, there were parts that dragged and had me wondering when I was going to read a portion that more closely resembled something of the traditional Robin Hood legend. So, if you're thinking of reading this book, don't start it with the Kevin Costner or Errol Flynn versions in mind. This Hood, Bran, is conflicted. He doesn't want to be a hero; he actually spends most of the book trying to run away. An interesting new spin on the tales of Robin Hood, this book is the first in a trilogy, surprise surprise. The next one is called Scarlet, which I can only assume is a reference to Will Scarlet, Robin Hood's second-most loyal companion, Little John being the first.

Title: The Brontë Project: A Novel of Passion, Desire, and Good PR
Author: Jennifer Vandever
Genre: Women's Fiction
Length: 288 pgs

Summary: Sara, a graduate student working on a PhD thesis, is attempting the impossible: she is looking for the missing letters of Charlotte Brontë. Sound similar to a book I just read/reviewed? Or maybe this? It must be the fashion these days. However, this book stays firmly in the present, and follows Sara's journey from being engaged to a wonderful man, to finding her place in the world once he decides he must follow his dream to live in the squalor of Paris, à la George Orwell.

( Excerpts )

Why should you read this book?
Vandever's fiction is clean and easy to understand; she manages to do the unthinkable, which is to make the audience feel for a type A personality as the main character. I call this book women's fiction rather than a romance because, like romances, Sara has entanglements with the other sex, but, unlike romances, the story is not about finding the perfect man for Sara, it's about Sara finding herself. Vandever uses quotes from Brontë's letters to start the beginning of each chapter...sometimes they make sense to me and other times they seem randomly chosen. Such is the danger of using quotes to begin passages of your prose. For a better example, try Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair. I have to say I liked this book, though I can't exactly say why. It's a simple story about the year in the life of Sara, and there are no real villains--maybe that's why I liked it. Similar to St Ursula's Girls Against the Atomic Bomb, I suppose. Give it a try, see what you can learn about your own fiction by reading Vandever's.

Title: The Grand Sophy
Author: Georgette Heyer
Genre: Regency Romance
Length: 416 pgs

Summary: The Ombersley house is in a turmoil. Cousin Sophy Stanton-Lacy has been left by her father, Sir Horace, to find a husband...the problem is, Sophy cannot do any such thing until the house has been put to rights. After all, cousin Cecilia is in love with a foppish poet who has no concept of reality, cousin Charles is about to marry a prosy prig, and no one is doing anything about it! That is, not until Sophy walked through the door...

Why should you read this book?
For one thing, if you're a regency romance reader you're supposed to already know about Georgette Heyer. Shame on you if you don't. And now comes my shocking admission: this is the first Heyer book I've ever read. I hadn't ever heard of Heyer before I started trolling writing blogs a year or so ago, which is scandalous, I know. Heyer is often described as the new Jane Austen, and I can see the resemblences in the writing tone. The Grand Sophy is fast-paced. So fast-paced that I didn't find an excerpts to post. This isn't because I was so drawn in the story, but more...the pace was so fast I would almost feel physically tired and had to put the book down.

The book starts with a very long conversation between Lady Ombersley and her brother, Sir Horace. They talk for almost thirty pages! And while it's an amusing conversation, and we learn a lot of backstory, I almost put the book down because really, what was going on but two people talking about people I don't care about yet? This book, I feel, would have started better with the arrival of Sophy. Heyer does a good job of defining the characters, so the immense backstory at the beginning is unnecessary.

So, if you're going to read Heyer, I'm not sure this is the book to start with. I have another Heyer on my list to read, so hopefully I'll like that one more. Read this book to see how an author can make a manipulative character the hero, keep the pacing fast, give each character definition, and write a snappy love story where the two main characters don't fawn over one another (they actually argue the entire book).