Book Banter -- The Dark is Rising

Title: The Dark is Rising (The Dark is Rising sequence book 2)
Author: Susan Cooper
Length: 218 pages
Genre: juvenile/fantasy
Plot Basics: Will Stanton just wants snow for his 11th birthday, but what he gets is far more adult and dangerous. Will discovers that he is the last of the Old Ones, a group of people withheld from Time who are the guardians of the Light and in constant struggle against the Dark. But as Christmas approaches, and the darkest time of the year, the powers of the Dark are growing stronger and Will is given a mission to collect and join the six Signs of Power as a weapon against the Dark. As Will comes into his power, he has a collection of mentors, including Merriman Lyon.
Banter Points: Word Nerd got interested in this series first after reading an interview with Cooper and then seeing the trailers for "The Seeker: The Dark is Rising" movie. (The movie is based on this book.) But, what she has found is a great kids' fantasy series that's good reading for adults too. High adventure and mysticism await in this book as Will learns what it means to be an Old One.
Bummer Points: Sometimes, Word Nerd really thought she needed to brush up on English mythology. There were a few references that she thought she should have known to stuff that was likely legend from Celtic/British mythology.
Word Nerd Recommendation: Though you don't have to read "Over Sea, Under Stone" to understand the action in this book, it's still good to start with that one first.

Book Banter -- Over Sea, Under Stone

Title: Over Sea, Under Stone (The Dark is Rising Sequence, book 1)
Author: Susan Cooper
Length: audiobook... no page count this time
Genre: juvenile/fantasy
Plot Basics: Simon, Jane and Barney Drew are on holiday with their Great Uncle Merry in Cornwall, England. The big house where they are all staying holds many secrets and one day, while exploring the attic, they find a ancient manuscript. The manuscript, Merry tells them, dates back to the time of King Arthur and could lead them to a great treasure, an item that will help the powers of good ward off the growing Dark. But the Drew children aren't the only ones looking for clues in Cornwall and they find themselves in a race to understand the manuscript, chased at every step by those who serve the Dark and would like to see them fail.
Banter Points: First, Alex Jennings' narration of the book was great. He did a wonderful job of reading the story making it truly enjoyable to listen too. Second, Word Nerd doesn't know how she missed this book as a kid. Since she enjoyed it now as a grown-up, it would have been even better then! Cooper keeps the action up in the story, writing great chase scenes and description that really take the reader to southwest England.
Bummer Points: Simon, Jane and Barney were, at times, a bit wooden. They seemed sort of like the stock British sibling characters on holiday.
Word Nerd Recommendation: If you like Harry Potter, these are worth checking out.

Book Banter -- The Fourth Bear

Title: The Fourth Bear
Author: Jasper Fforde
Length: 378 pages
Genre: mystery/comedy
Plot Basics: Nursery Crime Division Detective Chief Inspector Jack Spratt is off the job. His boss says it's because Jack is too crazy. But Jack's craziness is nothing compared to that of the serial killer Gingerbreadman who has recently escaped from prison. Top it off with some porridge smuggling, a Friend to Bears who may have been murdered, the world's worst idea for an amusement park and Jack is knee-deep in a bizarre case that he, technically, isn't authorized to solve.
Banter Points: Only Jasper Fforde could write this book and pull it off. At times laugh-aloud funny and filled with literary witticisms, The Fourth Bear is still a great mystery book. Obviously, Fforde knows both the genre and his audiences and the book is a delight to both.
Bummer Points: Word Nerd has now read her way through all of Fforde's back list and wishes there were more left for her to read.
Word Nerd recommendation: A must-read for anybody who loves books.

Book Banter -- Trigun Vol. 1

Title: Trigun, Vol. 1
Author: Yasuhiro Nightow
Length: 357 pages
Genre: sci-fi/manga
Plot Basics: Vash the Stampede, also known as the Humanoid Typhoon, the legendary gunman, has a $$60,000,000,000 (that’s 60 Billion Double Dollars) price tag on his head for the damage that’s caused when he’s been around, including the total destruction of Third July City. Given his destructive wake, the Bernardelli Insurance Society sends two agents, Meryl Stryfe and Millie Thompson, to try to avert the risks and damage Vash causes. But they can’t believe at first that the donut-loving man they find is really such a phenomenal gunman until he stops the infamous Nebraska family, saves people and a town and does it all without actually killing anyone… a position Vash adamantly upholds that no one has the right to take another life.
Banter Points: Word Nerd decided to read the actual manga series after having watched the anime series and thoroughly enjoying that. So far, while the manga mostly follows the plot in the anime (or the other way around, technically), it’s fun to see the little things in the original story that didn’t make the TV show version.
Bummer Points: It’s not a true bummer, but this is the first manga that Word Nerd’s read, so it’s taken a while to get used to the format. Manga are read back to front, right to left, even in English, to mirror the original Japanese format. For at least the first half of this book, Word Nerd really had to work to follow the series of comic panels.
Word Nerd recommendation: If you’ve ever wanted to check out manga, but didn’t know what to pick up, try these. The stories have a fun old West flavor to them, with a good dose of sci-fi. Or if you’re disinclined to read a graphic novel, the anime TV series is good too.

Book Banter -- The Pardon

Title: The Pardon
Author: James Grippando
Length: 406 pages
Genre: legal/thriller
Plot Basics: Jack Swyteck is a high-profile defense attorney, helping criminals avoid sentencing. His estranged father, Harry, is the law-and-order governor of the State of Florida, committed to enforcing the state’s death penalty when applicable. But after Jack defends – and wins a trial – for the notorious killer Eddy Goss, both Jack and Harry start receiving threatening messages. As they try to stay steps ahead of the blackmailer, Jack finds himself back at the defense table in a courtroom, but this time, as a defendant in a first-degree murder case. Jack knows he’s being framed, but it’s going to take reconciling with his father to catch another killer on the loose.
Banter Points: This is a great legal thriller read, reminiscent of early John Grisham books like The Firm and The Pelican Brief. Grippando makes both Jack and Harry believable characters instead of stock character-cut outs (the hotshot attorney, the governor only concerned with reelection). The plot has some interesting twists.
Bummer Points: This is one of Word Nerd’s recurring pet peeves in thrillers – the chapters written from the POV of the killer/bad guy. Word Nerd just doesn’t find this an effective technique. Most often for her, it doesn’t make the killer/bad guy any scarier, in fact, it breaks from the rising tension building for the main characters.

Word Nerd recommendation: Grippando’s got quite a list of titles out featuring Swyteck and Word Nerd’s excited to keep reading his back list based on his initial showing.

Author Answers with Ben Bova

This week's authors is one of the top names in science fiction today, Ben Bova. Bova has written many books, looking at the exploration of our own solar system, nanotechnology and green energy.

For more on Bova, check out his website.

WN: Your latest novel, "The Aftermath" is part of your Asteroid Wars/Grand Tour books. How did you get the idea to do a series looking out further and further into space?

BOVA: I’ve been an advocate of space exploration and development just about all of my life. I worked on the Vanguard program, the first US satellite effort, two years before the creation of NASA. So it was quite natural for me to write a series of novels about how the human race will expand through the solar system. My readers dubbed the series, “Bova’s Grand Tour of the Solar System.”

WN: You are categorized as a science fiction writer, but from your perspective, how much of what you write is fiction and how much is science, or possible future science? What kind of research do you do for your novels?

BOVA: I’m researching all the time. Fortunately, I have many friends in various scientific and technical fields, and I know where to go to find the information I need. My novels are solidly based on what is known, but I feel free to go beyond that – as long as no one can prove that I’m wrong. For example, in my novel JUPITER I postulated giant creatures living in a world-spanning ocean. The conditions on Jupiter are based on current information, but the ocean and the creatures in it are my extrapolations of existing data. The human characters are what makes a novel interesting, and I try to pattern my human characters on real, living human beings, with all their emotions, strengths and weaknesses.

WN: How do you think science fiction has shaped or influenced technology for things like space exploration and nanotechnology?

BOVA: Many top researchers and industrialists started reading science fiction as youngsters. I know that all the astronauts who walked on the Moon did. Their early readings convinced them, I think, that working in science or technology can be fun – and much more interesting than selling insurance.

WN: When you look at recent developments like SpaceShipOne being the first private craft to reach sub-orbit, where do you think space exploration or space travel is headed?

BOVA: I think private, profit-oriented entrepreneurs will push the development and exploitation of space, while government and university efforts will focus on scientific research – and defense.

WN: Were you a reader as a kid... what turned you on to reading/writing books and science fiction in particular?

BOVA: I was an asthmatic (still am), so I was reading when most of my friends were playing at sports. Science fiction excited me. That old “sense of wonder” hit me from the very first.

WN: After writing the number of books you have written, does the process get easier or harder? Why?

BOVA: It gets easier AND harder. Easier, in the sense that you have acquired the skills needed to tell a story; harder, because you are always trying to stretch your abilities and reach new territory.

WN: What is the best/most influential book you have ever read and why did it inspire you?

BOVA: There isn’t any single book, there are dozens, hundreds. Among the top are THE STORY OF MAN by anthropologist Carleton S. Coon, THE MAN WHO SOLD THE MOON by Robert A. Heinlein, and THE SUN ALSO RISES by Ernest Hemingway. Not necessarily in that order.

WN: What's next for you as a writer?

BOVA: I want to do an historical novel set in the time of the Trojan War

Book Banter -- Kill All the Lawyers

Title: Kill All the Lawyers
Author: Paul Levine
Length: 352 pages
Genre: mystery
Plot Basics: The lawyer team of Solomon and Lord is back, only this time, it's mostly Steve Solomon defending himself from a strange string of circumstances. It starts one morning when he discovers a marlin jabbed into his front door and then a local radio personality -- a man Steve once defended -- lambasting him on air. As Steve wrestles with his past and the possibility there's a killer still at large, his partner Victoria Lord struggles with whether their partnership is doomed.
Banter Points: Bobby, Steve's 12-year-old nephew, may again steal the show in this book. And for once, he's more integral to the plot.
Bummer Points: This one is not the best of the series, so far. It's strange to have a mystery novel without a dead body and the comedy between Solomon and Lord is lacking as well in this one.
Word Nerd recommendation: Since the first two were good, Word Nerd's not going to pass judgment on this series quite yet and is still planning to read the fourth one.

Character Study -- Chuck Bartowski

Word Nerd has admitted in the past how she does put down the book from time to time to watch TV shows. Particularly in the fall, when the new crop of shows comes on.

And one of this fall's new ones provides a good look at another character archetype.

Chuck from the NBC show "Chuck" is a good example of the everyman character.

The everyman type (originally coined from an English morality play) is supposed to be just as the name describes -- a character that anybody can relate to.

That's Chuck: average guy with a humdrum job, trouble finding dates, a quirky best friend, a somewhat meddling sister. In the story, of course, Chuck comes into the possession of government secrets, which is admittedly not very ordinary, but he's not suddenly a James Bond. He still is trying to live his average life and not being very suave with the whole secret-agent thing.

Chuck works as an everyman character, Word Nerd thinks, because many people have probably thought (after watching a James Bond movie, or Alias episode etc.) that they would make a good spy if called upon to do that. Chuck, naturally, remains just as geeky as a quasi-secret-agent as he was before.

Just like most of us would be.

The Book Meme

Word Nerd spotted this great meme over at upcoming author Jamie Ford's site, and thought, this is a good meme, since it's not the usual silly questions.

Since Ford tagged anybody who wanted to be tagged, Word Nerd decided to play along.

Total number of books
As in that are on Word Nerd's bookshelves? Or that she's read in a year or what? This category is ambiguous.

But here goes: Total number of books.

Seven Harry Potters + seven Chronicles of Narnia + four Time Quartet books by Madeleine L'Engle + six Griffin and Sabine + seven Graham Greene titles + ... oh you get the idea.

Both of Word Nerd's two bookshelves are full to overflowing.


Last book read
The Dead Girls' Dance. See the review of that here.


Last book bought
Thin Air. Rachel Caine. Book six in her Weather Warden series. Word Nerd had to lay down the cash for this one because the library hadn't purchased it yet and Word Nerd didn't want to wait.


Five meaningful books

1. The Lord of the Rings.
Word Nerd knows that this is a popular book for a lot of people, but seriously, this book has played a big part in her life. From having her dad read most of it to her the first time (until she got too scared at the end and made him stop until he insisted he tell her the end so she would know everything turns out OK), to rereading times for herself through in Jr. High, college, etc., it's been such a foundational story of how good triumphs and it's up to the least to change the world.


2. Watership Down.
Yes, it's the rabbit book. Another great foundational book that Word Nerd first had read to her as a kid, but has re-read many times since then. A great book about how stories impact communities.


3. The Once and Future King
T.H. White's classic King Arthur story. Another great book that has a good story, but deeper insights as well about how we order our societies and if might can ever make right and the falibility of humans.

4. The Hungering Dark
Frederick Buechner's powerful little book on doubt and faith and how having doubt doesn't mean that one doesn't have faith and that God is often found in the unexpected moments when we see "through a glass, darkly."

5. The Book Thief
Australian author Markus Zusak's haunting and compelling tale of a girl living in Nazi Germany. His prose is captivating and unique.

Since this is a meme, Word Nerd's tagging Stacie, Worderella and Kelly.

September Bibliometer

Here's the count for September.

6 books
2,315 pages
average 77 pages per day

YTD
68 books
24,034 pages

Compared to August, the monthly book/page count is lower, but then again, there was no time spent on an airplane to boost the count this month.

Author Answers with Harry Hunsicker

So Word Nerd temporarily forgot that today was Wednesday, but better late than never, here's today's author interview with Harry Hunsicker.

For more on Hunsicker, check out his website.

WN: Tell us about your newest book, “Crosshairs.” What kind of reader will like this book?
HUNSICKER: Anybody who likes hard-boiled thrillers. Fans of Robert Crais, Lee Child, Michael Connelly.

WN: When you wrote “Still River,” did you expect to write a series?
HUNSICKER: When I wrote STILL RIVER I was mainly just trying to finish. In revising it, I realized that the character had some legs to him and might be a good guy to hang a series.

WN: How did you create the character of Lee Henry Oswald?
HUNSICKER: I wanted a character whose name was tied to the area where he operated, Dallas and North Texas. I thought about creating a character who was a hitman named Tom Landry (The Dallas Cowboys legendary head coach) but I thought they might run me out of town. A few days later I came up with Lee Henry Oswald. In actually creating who he is, I wrote out a four or five page biography of him. Likes, dislikes. Physical description, education, etc. Including a fair amount about who his parents were.

WN: Were you a reader as a kid… what turned you on to reading/writing books?
HUNSICKER: I’ve been a huge reader since age five or six, devouring books by the truckload. I loved getting lost in a different world. At some point, I realized that I wanted to try and create some of those worlds myself.

WN: What’s the best part of being a writer to you? What’s the most challenging part of writing for you?
HUNSICKER: The best part of writing is the satisfaction that comes when everything works, when a scene comes together and everything fuses. It’s a marvelous feeling. (Which doesn’t happen enough!) The most challenging part is creating the setting. I spend hours describing the way a room or street looks, and then a few minutes on what happens. Weird, I know.

WN: What is the best/most influential book you have ever read and why did it inspire you?
HUNSICKER: Yikes, this is a hard one. I’m going to say TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. Story and character all came together seamlessly in that novel, making me realize what to shoot for.

WN: What’s next for you as a writer?
HUNSICKER: I’ve got premises for a couple of more Oswald books jotted down. I am working on a standalone right now. The hero is a similar character to Hank Oswald, but at the same time radically different. I’m doing a lot of magazine work these days and have also started on a screenplay about, what else, a writer.

Progress

The September page count meter barely got filled by the end of the month, but Word Nerd squeaked it out... all 30 pages.

Let's just be clear: September was hard work to make the goal. There's some life stuff currently making it hard to write because time is at a premium.

October likely will be the same way, so Word Nerd's dropped her page count goal for the month from 30 to 20. That also conveniently takes her to the end of the current composition book she's in, so at that point, again, she'll have to consider if this is the time to make the switch over to writing this book on the computer. (Her hunch is the answer is yes...)

The new October meter is up.

Book Banter -- The Dead Girls' Dance

Title: The Dead Girls' Dance
Author: Rachel Caine
Length: 248 pages
Genre: YA/urban fantasy
Plot Basics: Claire Danvers, teenage genius, barely survived her move into the Glass House after being run off campus by an all-beauty-no-brains clique. Moving to Glass House, despite making her great new friends Eve, Michael and Shane, may have been just as dangerous for Claire as she learns the truth about Morganville -- that the town is controlled by vampires. Now, there's a new gang in town determined to wipe out the vamps, no matter what the cost. And Claire finds herself in the position where going to a notorious frat party -- the Dead Girls' Dance -- may help her avert disaster.
Banter Points: There's a requisite "wow" needed here because it's a Rachel Caine book. She is one of the best writers of series that Word Nerd has encountered. Each book raises the stakes far higher than the last one, but in addition to having good plot, forces changes on the characters. Also, Word Nerd doesn't want to give away what it is, but it's interesting to watch Shane make a moral choice at the end of the book, when much of the current culture would say he should have chosen differently.
Bummer Points: Again, it's a Caine book, so who can say cliffhanger?
Word Nerd recommendation: Looking for good books for teen girls? These are on the OK list. They may feature vampires, but compared to the snarkiness that girls dish out to each other in some other YA books (like Gossip Girl), the vamps aren't so bad.

Book Banter -- The Big Over Easy

Title: The Big Over Easy
Author: Jasper Fforde
Length: 383 pages
Genre: mystery/comedy
Plot Basics: Detective Inspector Jack Spratt has been with the Nursery Crime Division for years, but his success rate isn't so great. On the heels of a failed prosecution of the Three Little Pigs, DI Spratt is assigned a new partner, Detective Sergeant Mary Mary. Together, they begin to investigate the death of Humpty Dumpty. At first they think the giant ovoid committed suicide, but as they piece together the clues (and Dumpty's shell), they begin to suspect murder. But Spratt and the whoel NCD division are under some pressure to finish this case before the division is shut down or the case is given over to wildly popular detective Friedland Chymes.
Banter Points: Another winner from the wacky mind of Jasper Fforde. Honestly, this man must take imagination pills with his morning coffee to come up with all this stuff. He mercilessly plays off of familiar nursery rhymes and fairy tales in this book as easily as he does with classic literature in his Thursday Next series. His humor is smarty and witty, but the comedy doesn't overshadow the story. At it's heart, even though it's the death of Humpty Dumpty, the book is still a smart mystery.
Bummer Points: For a reader unfamiliar with Fforde and Thursday Next, some of the humor would be lost.
Word Nerd recommendation: Fans of Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams if you haven't read Fforde, what are you waiting for? Bibliophiles of all stripes, Fforde will likely tickle your funny bone as well, but start with The Eyre Affair and read the Thursday Next series (at least up to Something Rotten) before reading Big Over Easy, to see how the two series link.

Harry Potter and the Bothersome Punctuation

Word Nerd was forwarded this commentary from Education Week and it was too good not to share.
This will not dilute Word Nerd's fan status for the books, but it is interesting to wonder if because it was Harry Potter, the editors involved were more forgiving.

Published Online: September 24, 2007


No Wiz at Grammar
Does it matter if the newest Harry Potter book is a punctuation train wreck?

By Alan Warhaftig

J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels have earned a special status in our culture, along with copious royalties for Ms. Rowling and profits for her publishers. The stories are imaginative, complex, and charming, and have accomplished the magical feat of inspiring millions of children to read.
This special status brings with it special responsibility, and in one important respect the final novel in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, fails: It does not respect the conventions of grammar and punctuation. This complaint may seem peevish, but as a high school English teacher I have to question the curriculum at Hogwarts. Like Chaplin’s dehumanized assembly-line worker in “Modern Times,” who feels compelled to tighten everything in sight with his wrench, I found myself marking this final Harry Potter as though it were a student’s paper.
For example, on Page 416, Hermione says, “I don’t think anyone except Mr. Lovegood could kid themselves that’s possible.” On Page 426, she says, “If surviving was as simple as hiding under the Invisibility Cloak, we’d have everything we need already!” While many teenagers are casual in their use of language, Hermione is not one of them, and while we know that she excels in Potions and Divination, she is also the type who would be acquainted with pronoun-antecedent agreement and the subjunctive mood—the errors in these two examples.
Hermione would also have learned to express herself in complete sentences, yet on Page 414, she says, “It’s just a morality tale, it’s obvious which gift is best, which one you’d choose—”
Grammar is not a scheme to suppress creativity wherever it rears its head, and following its conventions would not have compromised Ms. Rowling’s vision.
Albus Dumbledore, the longtime headmaster at Hogwarts, may be the root of the problem, a non-grammatical hero for young wizards to emulate. On Page 685, he says, “Harry must not know, not until the last moment, not until it is necessary, otherwise how could he have the strength to do what must be done?”
If these were isolated errors, it would be one thing, but I noted 474 run-on sentences in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows—all “comma splices” (We went to the store, then we went home)—and countless more saved only by dramatic overuse of the ellipsis, dash, and semicolon.
Speaking of the semicolon, a punctuation mark with noble potential, Ms. Rowling frequently misuses it, combining it with coordinating conjunctions (and and but) and using it between an independent and a dependent clause—both of which require English teachers to reach for the red pen.
An even more egregious problem is Ms. Rowling’s approach to punctuation of quotations, which appears to be almost perfectly random. In some instances, italics are used in place of quotation marks, as on Page 248: Her office must be up here, Harry thought.
Frequently, as on Page 21, both quotation marks and italics are used: “I? I see myself holding a pair of thick, woolen socks.”
On Page 312, this technique is used in combination with another serious punctuation error:
He could hear Ron saying, “We thought you knew what you were doing!”, and he resumed packing with a hard knot in the pit of his stomach.
In one instance, a punctuation train wreck on Page 566, the need for quotes within quotes is completely ignored:
“I told him, you’d better give it up now. You can’t move her, she’s in no fit state, you can’t take her with you, wherever it is you’re planning to go, when you’re making your clever speeches, trying to whip yourselves up a following. He didn’t like that, said Aberforth, and his eyes were briefly occluded by the firelight on the lenses of his glasses: They shone white and blind again.
Of course, none of these examples accords with the rules we teach in school, but what’s impressive about the grammar and punctuation of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is its inconsistency, a trait it shares with the preceding novels in the series. Did Scholastic Inc. neglect to assign an editor to the project, or are Ms. Rowling’s manuscripts protected by an immutability charm?
Writing is communication, and as readers we look for certain indicators to help us construct meaning. If we read, “John took Jane Eyre to bed,” we may infer from the italics that the name refers to the title of a work rather than someone he met at a nightclub—even if we have never heard of Charlotte Brontë.
Reading and writing are two sides of the same coin. The clues we require as readers are our responsibility to provide as writers. Punctuation serves the function of traffic lights and signs: It may be inconvenient to stop when we’re in a hurry and the light turns red, but we’d be far more severely inconvenienced if there were crashes at every intersection because there was no order to the flow of traffic.
In his 1946 essay “Politics and the English Language,” George Orwell wrote that our language “becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.” Writing is not necessarily the recording of existing thoughts on paper; it can also be the means by which we form our ideas. The rules of language provide boundaries within which our voice must flow; they force us to discipline both expression and thought, which is why it is so important for young people to learn to use language precisely.
Grammar is not the enemy, a scheme to suppress creativity wherever it rears its head, and following its conventions would not have compromised Ms. Rowling’s vision. It is unfortunate that the editing of her books, with millions of young, impressionable readers, has not matched the quality of their storytelling.
How shall my colleagues and I respond to students who ask why they should follow the rules when the author of the wildly successful Harry Potter novels does not? Should high-stakes exams adopt an “anything goes” approach, with any of the multiple-choice answers considered to be correct? Writers and publishers have a responsibility, and Ms. Rowling and Scholastic Inc. have clearly dropped the snitch.
Alan Warhaftig teaches English at the Fairfax Magnet Center for Visual Arts, in Los Angeles.
Vol. 27

Author Answers with Thomas Maltman

This week's featured author is Thomas Maltman. Maltman's first novel, "The Night Birds" was chosen as a Book Sense and Midwest Connections book pick earlier this year. Maltman teaches at Silver Lake College.

For more about him, visit his website.

WN: What is "Night Birds" about and how did you get the idea for this book?
MALTMAN: The Night Birds is about the Dakota Conflict of 1862, a lost history long overshadowed by the Civil War. It's about this history and so much more. Recently, I interviewed with a bookseller down in Iowa. "What your novel is really about," she told me, "is family secrets." Now that's a much juicier description. Much of the novel also takes in 1876, fourteen years after the conflict. My narrator grows up, as he puts it, "in the shadow of the Great Sioux War."

I first came across the story of conflict and the hangings in a book written for children and my imagination was captivated. Then I married an ELCA pastor from Minnesota and our first assignment took us to Little House of the Prairie territory, just five miles from where the trouble all started. I felt this history calling to me from out of time and knew that I had to tell it.

WN: What's your writing process like?
MALTMAN: I have a lovely, two year old daughter who governs the household. (Or likes to think she does!) So I rise early in the morning and begin writing at 5:00. I like to write while it's dark outside and the world is hushed and still. In that quiet, my half-asleep mind can dream up surprising things. I write for a few hours, until my daughter wakes up, and I always try to end in mid-sentence, so that I have a beginning place the next day. I write drafts all the way through, then put the story away for awhile, so I can take it out a few months later and look over it with fresh eyes.

WN: You also teach creative writing. As a writer, is it hard to practice what you preach?
MALTMAN: I hope not! I do think my students here at Silver Lake College can learn from my failures just as much as my successes. I've saved everything I've ever written and it's not all pretty. Sometimes, I'll bring samples from my undergraduate work, which includes some comical missteps, and we'll talk about where a poem or story went wrong.

I'm a poet as well as a storyteller and I so want them to learn how to make language sing. Ultimately, the class is about them and the focus is on their individual growth as writers.

WN: Were you a reader as a kid… what turned you on to reading/writing books?
MALTMAN: My grandma was a large woman who had a rich, sonorous reading voice. When she held me in her lap to read to me it was like sinking into a warm, plush cushion. She read to me from Tarzan and the Lost Empire, a book illustrated with lovely paintings. I traced these paintings with my fingers while her voice invoked the action. The scenes were of immense trees with twisting vines, pythons and black panthers, and the orphaned boy mesmerized by his own reflection in a dark pond. My grandma's voice was every bit as important as the visuals. She could imitate animal sounds, change pace and pitch as danger threatened Tarzan, and descend into a low whispery cadence when the hero was alone or dreaming. She made the book come alive.

As an adult reader and writer I still marvel at the power of good fiction to transport us to another time and place. There is nothing else like it. No movie or video game can awaken the imagination the way a good book can.

WN: What is the best/most influential book you have ever read and why did it inspire you?
MALTMAN: I love Dostoevsky's The Brother's Karamazov. I used to smuggle this sprawling Russian epic into my jacket when I went deer hunting with my brothers-in-law and read it after the sun came up. Vivid and charged with incident, the novel still takes on the great question of our existence—why are we here?

WN: What's next for you as a writer?
MALTMAN: My next project is a small town mystery. I think many writers are drawn to small towns, which offer the universe in a microcosm. Good and evil exist everywhere, but in a small town those attributes are much more apparent. The novel will still touch on history and the way history is alive and impacts the present.

Book Banter -- Fire Me Up

Title: Fire Me Up
Author: Katie MacAlister
Length: ~380 pages
Genre: paranormal/chick-lit/romance
Plot Basics: Aisling Grey, recently discovered to be a Guardian, goes to paranormal conference in Budapest to learn more about her powers and maybe get a mentor to show her the ropes. Her uncle has also graciously extended her another courier job to complete while she's in town. When she arrives in Budapest, she also spots Drake, the uber-cool and sexy thief who tormented her time in Paris. Turns out Drake's got business in Budapest too, business he may have moved there just to be in the same city as Aisling. Aisling's search though for a mentor becomes difficult when some of the Guardian's she approaches later turn up dead.
Banter Points: Again, as in the first book, Jim the talking Newfoundland may be the best part of these books.
Bummer Points: See the review of "You Slay Me." Most of those problems still apply. Also, Aisling seems to be suffering from Anita Blake syndrome (ie, she keeps getting massive new powers for no good reason...)
Word Nerd recommendation: If you like novels heavy on the romance side of "paranormal romance," then you might like these books. If you want something with a better plot, better characters, etc., skip these.

Progress

Yes, the page count meter is slowly creeping up this month. Since Word Nerd hasn't yet set pencil to paper for today, the meter is exactly where it should be in the one-page-a-day plan.

She was hoping to make more progress on the WIP this month, but sometimes life gets a little busy for that. A page a day is still respectable. The difficulty now is that the story is getting to the good part -- murder! treason! possible regicide!

As a writer, it's harder to stop writing some of these scenes. That unfortunately means that if Word Nerd doesn't think she has the time, she's not starting them... Again, she's wondering if it's time to abandon the composition books for the keyboard, where the words flow a bit faster.

Author Answers with Todd Stone

This week's featured author is Todd Stone, sometimes also known as T.A. Stone, and also as the leader of the Novelists Boot Camp.

For more on Stone and where to find Novelist Boot Camp sessions, go to his website.

WN: Tell us about your latest novel to hit shelves. What kind of reader will really like this book?
STONE: My latest mystery is No Place Like Home, the second in the Jonathan Kraag, reluctant PI series. Readers who like a fast-paced mystery that delves deeply into the mind of a troubled detective, manipulative criminal, and also goes behind suburbia's wholesome facade will enjoy No Place Like Home.
My most recent work, however, is Novelist's Boot Camp: 101 Ways to take your fiction from boring to bestseller. It's a military-themed "how to write a novel" book from Writer's Digest Books, and it helps aspiring and new authors take command of their novels with very practical strategies and tactics (Drills) that drive progress. There's all kinds of free downloads--like sample chapters, a battle plan for novel writing, and others--on our website http://www.storytellerroad.com/.

WN: Todd Stone. T.A. Stone. They are really both you, but what’s the difference and why use a different name for some books?
STONE: I received some advice--whether it was good or not time will tell--to use a different pen name for different genres. I wanted to use the pen name "Earnest Hemingway," but my publishers nixed that idea.

WN: From the looks of your website schedule, it seems you spend a lot of time teaching writing workshops. Why do you take the time to help aspiring authors?
STONE: I spent quite a bit of time presenting workshops and I wrote Novelist's Boot Camp for the same reason--to de-mystify the writing process. I guess it's the teacher in me--I was a writing instructor when I served at the US Military Academy at West Point and a creative writing teacher after that--and once teaching is in your blood, you never really leave it behind.

WN: What’s your writing process like?
STONE: Of course, Novelist's Boot Camp mirrors my writing process--although sometimes I struggle to practice what I preach. Because I have a day job, a lovely (and long-suffering wife), and other interests, I have to break my writing down into very small, very manageable pieces and then work on those pieces. I've found this planning and discipline actually lets me be more creative, and I think some of the awards my fiction has won is testimony to that process' effectiveness. That said, every writer has to find what works for them. The key here is what "works." If you have a process but you're not making progress on your novel, get a different process. I'd suggest you try the one in Novelist's Boot Camp, but I may be a trifle prejudiced.

WN: Were you a reader as a kid… what turned you on to reading/writing books?
STONE: Books were a great escape for me as a child, and I read everything I could get my hands on--from comic books to history to mystery to biography to treatises on the relationship between Zen and subatomic physics ("The Dancing Wu Li Masters") to the back of cereal boxes.

WN: What’s the best part of being a writer to you? What’s the most challenging part of writing for you?
STONE: The best parts are crafting something good and then seeing people enjoy it--at least for fiction. For non-fiction, the best part is literally helping people achieve one of their dreams by helping them make progress in their writing.

WN: What is the best/most influential book you have ever read and why did it inspire you?
STONE: There's no way I could single out just one, but if I had to fill my rucksack with only a couple of books, you can bet The Complete Works of Shakespeare and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance would go in near the top, with Lawrence Block's When the Sacred Gin Mill Closes right after that. The Bard's stories of and insight into the human condition -- and his craftsmanship -- are timeless. Pirsig's novel/philosophical tract on men and machines and madness is one to come back to again and again, and Block's tale of murder and modern demons that live at the bottom of a glass can't help but strike a cord in a man's soul.

Book Banter -- You Slay Me

Title: You Slay Me
Author: Katie MacAlister
Length: 334 pages
Genre: paranormal romance
Plot Basics: Aisling Grey takes a job as a courier for her uncle. Her first assignment is to deliver an aquamanile to Paris. When she arrives to make the delivery, she finds the purchaser dead and an mysterious (and hot) man, Drake Vireo, at the scene. When Aisling leaves, she realizes the mystery man took the aquamanile. Determined to make her job a succes, Aisling decides to clear her name and retrieve the aquamanile. But her search takes her into the underworld of Paris and leads her to discover she's a Guardian, with mystical powers and has a fate intertwined with Drake's.
Banter Points: Why this book ended up on Word Nerd's reading list deserves some explanation.

Last summer, you may recall Word Nerd was working on a different WIP. That WIP, which is/was a paranormal/urban fantasy/chick-lit deal had a main character originally named Aisling, kid you not. Word Nerd stumbled (thanks to Amazon.com recommendations) across MacAlister's series and realized she had to change the name of her protagonist. Two paranormal books with a protag named Aisling is one too many. Since then, Word Nerd's been curious about this series and finally ran across it at the library.

Not surprisingly, Word Nerd likes her Aisling (now Ainsley) much better.

Best part of MacAlister's books? Jim, the talking Newfoundland dog. As sidekicks go, he's right up there as is Rene, the French taxi driver.
Bummer Points: Oh boy. Yeah... The problems with this book are all over the map, but Word Nerd will just pick one.

Big Problem #1: Why Aisling has the powers she does and doesn't know about it. There's a line about her being born to it. Word Nerd doesn't get it though... In most cases of somebody being born to powers, there's somebody else who fills them in. (Think Buffy and the Watchers here.) This Aisling is completely in the dark about what she can do -- no Watcher-type character, no explanation of how somebody as powerful as she's made out to be has slipped through the cracks. Nothing.

Big Problem #2: Drake's past.

Big Problem #3: Why are green dragons in charge of fire? Doesn't green imply earth to most people, not flames?
Word Nerd recommendation: Though this book had some big problems, Word Nerd's plowing ahead into book 2 because, largely, Jim the Newfoundland is funny enough to make up for much of the rest of it. And she's still curious about this Aisling...

Another great

Is there a writing equivalent of dimming the lights on Broadway in memory of a famous contributor who's passed away?

If so, the literary world should do it again today.

Epic fantasy novelist Robert Jordan has died, leaving the 12th and apparently to be final volume of his Wheel of Time series unfinished. USAToday has the story here.

Word Nerd read the early Jordan books in the series in the late 90s. She was quite a fan of the very early volumes of the story, plowing through the 800-page tomes with vigor. In high school, one of Word Nerd's good pals was also a Jordan fan, leading to intense conversations over lunch about the plot and characters. Word Nerd took one of the Jordan books with her when she traveled to Russia in fall 1997 and remembers distinctly reading it there and being distraught when two characters hooked up and not being able to gossip about this over lunch.

In subsequent years, Word Nerd stopped reading the series as they got long and seemed to be drifting farther and farther from the original plot. Word Nerd lost interest, but the books sold millions of copies and she knows there are saddened fans out there everywhere.

Book Banter -- Lady Friday

Title: Lady Friday (Keys to the Kingdom series bk. 5)
Author: Garth Nix
Length: 304 pages
Genre: juv. fantasy
Plot Basics: Arthur Penhaligon, rightful heir to all the Houses of the Architect, is worried about his humanity. If he uses too much more magic found in the Keys to the Kingdom, he won't be able to return to earth. But as he's contemplating this, Lady Friday announces she's abdicating her position to whomever can claim it first, Arthur, the Piper or Superior Saturday. Arthur finds himself in a race to win, or a race to stay alive. And meanwhile, his friend Leaf is caught up in Friday's true plot.

Banter Points: Nix must have taken imagination pills before writing this series because book 5 (like 1-4) is chock full of fanciful ideas. From paper clothes (and the ingeniously bureaucratic Paper Pushers) to "experiencing" the lives of mortals, this latest volume in the series is another of the action-packed adventures readers can expect from Nix.
Bummer Points: Something about the pacing of this book seemed slower. Word Nerd can't quite put her finger on what was different.

Word Nerd recommendation: A worth-while post-Potter read for adults and kids. The downfall is the whole series isn't out yet...

Book Banter -- Thin Air

Title: Thin Air (Weather Warden Book 6)
Author: Rachel Caine
Length: 307 pages
Genre: urban fantasy
Plot Basics: SPOILER ALERT

Weather Warden Joanne Baldwin has to save the world. Again. Only this time, she doesn't remember who she is, what she's doing, how to use the powers she can control (weather and fire and now, surprising, earth) or who the two men, Lewis and David, who come to rescue her are. Jo's past memories have been removed from her by an angry Djinn and end up being taken by a demon, who starts impersonating Jo. Problem is, some people want to take advantage of Jo's powers when she can't remember if she should trust them.
Banter Points: It's always great to see the next exploits of this kick-butt heroine in a series (not about vampires) that has a tough-girl chick lead. The world building of powers to control the elements and the little touches (like Weather Wardens not liking to fly) make the series fun. It's a great airplane/beach/need-something-light read.
Bummer Points: Fun, yes, but not the best of the series, by far. The past five have been great because each book raised the stakes of the plot for the next one in dramatic ways. This one, while an interesting premise of her not having her memory, doesn't carry through with what seemed to be promised at the end of book 5.
Word Nerd recommendation: Caine's reported that she's got a contract for a few more Weather Warden books and a new series on the djinn, so Word Nerd's going to keep this series on her radar.

Fall Book Previews

Within the last few weeks, many of major news organizations and retailers have put out their Fall Book Preview sections.

Here's a round-up.

Washington Post Book World

USAToday

Amazon.com

Some writers to watch for in the lists -- Alice Sebold, Nicholas Sparks, John Grisham and Patricia Cornwall all have new books coming out. On the non-fiction side, so does Bill Clinton, Alan Alda and Stephen Colbert.

One book Word Nerd's got her eye on that just missed the fall lists (coming out very early in September) is Brock Clarke's "Arsonist's Guide to Writer's Homes in New England." Just to be clear, it's fiction... not a how-to book.

Author Answers with Cynthia Dennis

This week's author, Cynthia Dennis, is the author of a memoir, "The Sunflower Sinner," about her father's attempt to become the governor of Kansas.

Dennis will be in Oshkosh on Sept. 20 for an event at the UW-Oshkosh Womens Center. The event, co-sponsored by Apple Blossom Books, will be at 5 p.m. in the Foundation Building on campus.

WN: Why did you decide to write “The Sunflower Sinner?”
DENNIS: I wanted to offer readers a firsthand glimpse inside the life of a scandalized political family. We rarely hear from a politician's spouse or children about the effect of scandal on them. I also wanted to tell this story because it is a compelling example of how one moment of fate, and a politician's fatal decision, can turn an entire family's life upside down.

WN: What challenges were there in writing a personal memoir?
DENNIS: There is a delicate balance between focusing evenly on one's own role while telling the larger story, This memoir was never intended to be about me. Rather, it was written with the goal of examining a scandalized political family within the framework of a sensational abortion murder trial, a bribe, and an explosive political scandal trial. Both Kansas trials are reported in the book.

WN: This book is about your family. How have other family members or close friends reacted to the book?
DENNIS: The response has been gratifying because comments have been insightful and positive. Those who knew our family have offered fascinating tidbits about how they viewed us, and details not known until now. And readers who never met my family have provided a range of interesting reactions, including observations about their own family relationships.

WN: You are a journalist as well. Did that training help you for writing this book?
DENNIS: Having spent my career in various types of journalism certainly helped with the writing. However, as a newspaper journalist for 18 years and a graduate student before that, I was not used to writing in the first person. Journalists are taught not to inject themselves into their stories. Compiling a lengthy book was also a new experience as none of my journalism assignments ever totaled more than 200 pages!

WN: Were you a reader as a kid… what turned you on to reading/writing books?
DENNIS: I was an avid reader as a child, and still am. My parents made sure that we had access to books. My father was an attorney who was passionate about current events and reading newspapers, which influenced me. I began writing at a young age, and never stopped.

WN: What’s the best part of being a writer to you? What’s the most challenging part of writing for you?
DENNIS: As a feature writer, the best part of newspaper writing was meeting new people, having novel experiences, and learning about unfamiliar things. The most challenging part of writing a book was the continuous rewriting to make it better. One spends so much time with the text that it is easy to lose your objectivity, which is needed in order to assess whether the overall product is good or not.

WN: What is the best/most influential book you have ever read and why did it inspire you?
DENNIS: I like, and have been influenced by, so many books that it is difficult to select just one. At the top of my list are two books by Raymond Carver: "Call Me If You Need Me" and "Where I'm Calling From." These collections of short stories are inspiring because they offer fine examples of spare yet eloquent writing with richly defined characters.

Book Banter -- Kushiel's Chosen

Title: Kushiel's Chosen
Author: Jacqueline Carey
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 678 pages
Plot Basics: Phedre no Delaunay finds herself once again in the service of the Queen of Terre d'Ange. This time, Phedre goes south to seek out where traitor Melisande may have fled. But even from a distance, Melisande continues to play her game of thrones and Phedre's trip sets part of Melisande's terrible plot in motion. And Phedre must use all her wits, wiles and wherewithal to stop her and save her beloved Terre D'Ange.
Banter Points: Again, Carey's world building is amazing. This alternate Europe she's created is as rich in detail as the real thing and fraught with the same kind of king-making history as the true one as well.
Additionally, she does a good job of writing both a book with exquisite character development and introspection and rousing action sequences.
Bummer Points: The end of the book seemed to drag on, though with a book this long, it's somewhat understandable that the denouement will take longer.
Word Nerd Recommendation: Fans of Robert Jordan and George R.R. Martin take note. This is a very manageable series but with the magical and fant-historical elements these other authors do well.

August Bibliometer

The reading on the bibliometer for August is as follows:

11 books
3,899 pages
average 126 pages/day

YTD
62 books
21,719 pages
average book length, 350 pages

Another great loss

The Associated Press is reporting that author Madeleine L'Engle died yesterday at age 88.

The story is here.

Word Nerd has always been a fan of L'Engle's works, both fiction and non-fiction. Word Nerd always wanted to meet her; based on her writings, she seemed like such a classy, faith-filled, imaginative woman.

L'Engle is the second, after Lloyd Alexander earlier this year, of beloved childhood authors that have passed away recently. It's sad to know that the world is losing these authors, that there will never be new books like them.

At least their past works will be around for future generations.

Book Banter -- Fourth Comings

Title: Fourth Comings

Author: Megan McCafferty

Length: 310 pages

Genre: Chick-lit/literary

Plot Basics: Jessica Darling, the quick-witted sharp-tongued protagonist of McCafferty's series is back. Now, done with college, she's living in a rented room, sharing a bunk bed with best friend Hope in New York City, while working as a part-time writer/editor for a magazine. Her boyfriend, the ever-eclectic Marcus Flutie is beginning his freshman year at Princeton and before his semester starts, makes Jessica a proposal. The proposal, actually. And while he's off on a freshman trip, Jessica has a week to think about (and journal) his proposal.

Banter Points: Voice, voice, voice. This is what McCafferty's series has going for her. Voice, the first-person narration/journal entries of Jessica have an unique timbre and bite that makes turning pages a necessity. The plot may be kind of predictable, but the way McCafferty tells the story is what's so good, rather than the ups-and-downs of the plot itself.

Bummer Points: It's funny, but Word Nerd liked the books better when Jessica was in high school.

Word Nerd Recommendation: The series is still holding strong four books in. If you are looking for a good book for older teen girls, this series is a good pick.

Book Banter -- Garden of Darkness

Title: Garden of Darkness (releases 12.4.07)
Author: Anne Frasier
Length: 384 pages
Genre: thriller/horror
Plot Basics: Welcome back to the town of Tuonela, Wisc. The town, long plagued by stories of a vampire called the Pale Immortal, is hoping to capitalize on the legend as a tourist attraction, putting the body of the Pale Immortal, Richard Manchester, on display in a museum. The display brings to town ghost hunters and film students all hoping to capitalize on the event. And some of them start ending up dead, making it impossible for Rachel Burton, the town's medical examiner, to leave and go back to California. The town gets in a frenzy over the Pale Immortal and the killings, though none more so that Evan Stroud, who maniacally starts digging up part of the town, looking for a dangerous key to the town's haunted past.
Banter Points: This book is creepy -- not for reading before going to bed and not for the faint of heart, even during daylight hours. Frasier definitely delivered on this sequel to Pale Immortal. It was nice to see the characters move ahead (or try to) in their lives, as they were impacted by the events that happened in P.I.

Bummer Points: There was some switching POV stuff that just isn't Word Nerd's favorite literary technique. Frasier did it well, but it's just not a technique that Word Nerd likes.

Word Nerd recommendation: Mark Dec. 4 on your calendars for the release date for this one.

Author Answers with Scott Westerfeld

This week's author is YA and sci-fi writer Scott Westerfeld. His next book will come out in October, the latest in his Uglies series.

For more on Westerfeld, check out his website.

WN: Your new book, “Extras” comes out in October. On your website, you describe it as a companion novel to your Uglies series. What do you mean by that and how does it fit with the other books?
WESTERFELD: Extras takes place a few years after the events of Uglies/Pretties /Specials. It's from the point of view of a new character in Japan, a 15-year-old girl named Aya, who's watching the end of the prettytime in her own city. The old regime of uglies and pretties is over, so I thought it would be good to see from a new perspective how Tally and her friends changed the world.

WN: You’ve got quite the list of appearances scheduled. Do you like the opportunity to interact with readers and if so, why?
WESTERFELD: Teens are very intense readers. They're willing to tell you what they liked, what they didn't like, and how they would have ended your book. Because their feedback is much more honest than that of adult readers, it's much more exciting (and nervous-making) to hear what they have to say.


WN: Why did you make the switch from writing adult novels to YA novels? Is one harder than the other?
WESTERFELD: I got an idea (for my Midnighters series) that featured a bunch of teenage protagonists, so I wrote the book as a YA just as an experiment, to see if I could. I soon found that I really liked the "YA voice." The teenage years are much more intense and fraught than adulthood, with opportunities for a lot more drama, which I love to write. On top of that, younger readers don't let you get away with as much waffling, so I think it sharpens my writing to keep the narrative focus they demand.

One thing I didn't expect about the shift was how welcoming the world of youth librarians and teachers turned out to be. It's wonderful and humbling to have a whole new set of champions helping readers find my work.


WN: What’s your writing process like?
WESTERFELD: I used to write manically, but as I get older I'm much more of a tortoise than a hare. These days I try to write about a thousand words a day, quite steadily, without any bursts of hyper-activity. Every day starts with a few hours of editing, usually the stuff I've written over the last few days, to get me warmed up before I start on new scenes. The most important ritual is that I always start right after breakfast, before there are too many other thoughts in my head.

WN: Were you a reader as a kid… what turned you on to reading/writing books?
WESTERFELD: I read a lot: under the covers, on the bus, during class. I don't actually remember how that started, except there was a teacher who read to us in second grade who had the best voice ever. I think a lot of readers start off as listeners.

WN: What’s the best part of being a writer to you? What’s the most challenging part of writing for you?
WESTERFELD: I like always having something complicated to think about. My novels are around 80,000 words long, and when I'm thoroughly into a book, that vast presence is in my head all the time, demanding to be shaped and crafted. It's a very rich thing to carry around in your mind.

The most challenging part is the blank page, when there's no characters or voice or setting yet. It's a very lonely place.

WN: What is the best/most influential book you have ever read and why did it inspire you?
WESTERFELD: I don't really have an answer for this one. Sorry.

Author Answers with J.D. Rhoades

This week's author is J.D. Rhoades, author of three books featuring bail bondsman Jack Keller.

For more on Rhoades, check out his website.

WN: Your third Jack Keller novel just came out this summer. What kind of character is Jack Keller?
RHOADES: Jack's a bail bondsman and bounty hunter working in southeastern North Carolina. He's a veteran of the first Gulf War with severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and a bad case of survivor guilt, stemming from a "friendly fire" incident that wiped out the squad he was leading. The only thing that shakes him out of the emotional numbness that's a symptom of the PTSD is the adrenaline rush he gets from hunting down bail jumpers and hauling them back. He's very good at his job because he's so focused, relentless and pretty much fearless. Needless to say, however, being an adrenaline junkie is not a healthy way to live, and the underlying story in the series is Jack's struggle to get past it, re-learn to connect with people, and become a fully functioning human being again. It's a rocky road; as Jack's friend and psychiatrist observes, "it's hard to treat someone who keeps getting shot at for a living."

WN: When you first created Jack Keller, were you planning to write a series or how the series come about?
RHOADES: I didn't start out with the plan to write a series. Jack was really just a sketch at first. It was about halfway through writing my first novel, THE DEVIL'S RIGHT HAND, that I started thinking "hey, this guy could be a series character, if I don't kill him off first."

WN: How has your background in journalism, law and Dee-jay-ing (is that a ord?) helped you as a writer?
RHOADES: Well small-town law practice gives me a wealth of anecdotes and atmosphere for what I've dubbed "redneck noir." There's a lot of desperate people leading precarious lives out there and when they go over the edge, step back and watch the fireworks. People ask me if I know any real people like DeWayne Puryear from THE DEVIL'S RIGHT HAND or Laurel Marks from GOOD DAY IN HELL. I tell them "dozens, but most of them haven't gone that far. Most of them. Yet."
I (fortunately) haven't met anyone quite as nasty as DeGroot from SAFE AND SOUND, but I know a couple of people who have.
Journalism--well, I'm really only a freelance columnist for the local paper. I've won a couple of awards for it, but I can't really consider myself a journalist when I know so many people who labor long and hard to get the facts right, and all I do is open a beer, sit down at thecomputer, and make fun of politicians and celebrities. I guess beingable to crank out a certain word count on deadline's good discipline.
Deejaying--don't know if it's a word, but I can't say drinking rum and Coke, flirting with cocktail waitresses, and playing Janet Jackson records for 10 bucks an hour really affected my writing at all. Best damn job I ever had, though.

WN: What's your writing process like?
RHOADES: Sit down. Turn laptop on. Write book. Turn in book. Wrangle with editor over changes. Collect advance. Repeat.
But seriously folks...I do outline, but only because my publisher wants to see an outline to consider the book. Once it's sold, I pretty much throw the outline away because I hate knowing how something ends before I write it. Don't tell my editor I said that.
I try to write at least 800-1,000 words a day, which I don't always make. I tend to write very slowly; I revise as I go and agonize over every word. I may revise the same paragraph fifteen times before moving on. I'm trying to break that habit. The upside is that when it's done, I usually don't need to do major revisions.

WN: Were you a reader as a kid... what turned you on to reading/writing books?
RHOADES: Oh yeah, I was definitely a reader. My mom taught me to read early, got me my first library card and took me down every week till I could get there on my own. I always had my nose in a book. We'd have holiday gatherings with the extended family, and by mid afternoon, I'd be out in the car stretched out in the back seat with my feet up in the open window, reading.

WN: What's the best part of being a writer to you? What's the most challenging part of writing for you?
RHOADES: There are so many joys about being a writer. Getting to hang out and swap stories with other writers I admire. Meeting readers. Meeting and talking about books with booksellers. But probably the best part is getting my big box of promo copies, ripping it open, and seeing a big ol' pile of novels with MY NAME on the cover. It's a rush, baby.
Most challenging part? Same as for every writer, I think: sitting down with a big empty white screen in front of you, knowing you have to fill it with words, and getting that old familiar panicky feeling in the gut: I can't do this, why did I think I could do this, etc.

WN: What is the best/most influential book you have ever read and why did it inspire you?
RHOADES: Wow, it's hard to pick just one. And I don't like to do stuff that's hard, so I won't.
I devoured John D. McDonald's Travis McGee books when I was younger, and I definitely think his straight ahead style of storytelling influenced me. I loved Hammett's RED HARVEST and pay tribute to it in SAFE AND SOUND. I mean, how can you not love a book that has a chapter called "The Seventeenth Murder"? Plus, I love that that tough, lean prose.
Great stuff. Lawrence Block's Matt Scudder series got me back into reading mysteries a few years ago, and his TELLING LIES FOR FUN AND PROFIT is the gold standard for books on writing as far as I'm concerned. It's one of only two "how to write" books, as a matter of fact, that I've ever been able to finish, the other being Stephen King's ON WRITING. Robert Crais' L.A. REQUIEM's a big influence; someday I hope to write a book that comes close to being that good. Hey, a guy can dream.

Book Banter -- Glass Houses

Title: Glass Houses
Author: Rachel Caine
Length: 239 pages
Genre: YA/urban fantasy
Plot Basics: Claire Danvers is academically gifted and enters college in Morganville TX at age 16. But her brains aren't appreciated by the other girls in her dorm, especially Monica. Monica has it out for Claire, making threats that Claire is sure Monica will follow through on, so Claire leaves the dorm. She finds new housing with Eve, Shane and Michael, a trio of 18-year-olds who for various reasons decide to stick up to Monica with her. But in sticking up to Monica, the group also runs afoul of Morganville's big secret -- that the town is run by vampires...
Banter Points: So, at first, Word Nerd thought this would be like typical YA... campy plot, ragged writing, etc. How wrong she was. And she should have know that because, hello, Rachel Caine wrote this book. Which means the book had a great plot, with great rising action and a typical Caine cliff-hanger. Claire, Eve, Shane and Michael all are great characters with pasts and secrets and different personalities.
Bummer Points: The Oshkosh library system doesn't have book two. Not that it's just checked out. No, they don't have it at all. Sigh.
Word Nerd recommendation: Don't get hung up on the YA label. It's a fun book and everything that was wrong about Gossip Girl (see yesterday's Book Banter), this book's got right.

Book Banter -- Gossip Girl

Title: Gossip Girl
Author: Cecily von Ziegesar
Length: 201 pages
Genre: YA
Plot Basics: Former "it" girl Serena van der Woodsen returns to her former NYC prep school after a year away at boarding school and comes back with a cloud of nasty rumors about what happened to her during the last year. Her former friends don't really want to interact with her, and so Serena makes some new friends.
Banter Points: It was an easy read.
Bummer Points: Sheesh. Where to begin. Ok, point #1: Word Nerd is not 16. Maybe if she were, this book would have been better. Point #2: There are lots of books written for teens and younger that Word Nerd has really enjoyted. Point #3. Gossip Girl is not one of them. It's amazing to Word Nerd that these books are best-sellers. Not very much actually happened in this first book ... unless you count the under-aged main characters getting wasted a few times. Hopefully not sounding like a prude here, but Word Nerd was pretty appalled at the behavior of the main characters. Yes, teens get drunk and have sex, but honestly, if that the kind of story to put in their hands to have them aspire to?
Word Nerd recommendation: Skip it. If you're a parent that's got a teen girl reader, reconsider these titles. There are other, far better written, far better plotted, far better examples in fiction.

Book Banter -- Whistling in the Dark

Title: Whistling in the Dark
Author: Lesley Kagen
Length: 297 pages
Genre: literary fiction
Plot Basics: Ten year-old Sally O'Malley has an overactive imagination. When a child molester and murderer hits her neighborhood in 1959 Milwaukee, she's convinced she will be the next victim. But she and her younger sister Troo, are left to fend for themselves that summer when their mother ends up in the hospital, their older sister spends more time with her boyfriend Eddie than her younger siblings and their stepfather abandons them.
Banter Points: Kagen writes beautifully through the voice of 10-year-old Sally, managing to capture the insight of how kids see the world. Kagen paints a great picture of this 1950s neighborhood with its deep-rooted Catholicism and hidden secrets.
Bummer Points: One of the big plot twists Word Nerd figured out before it was revealed. Maybe Word Nerd has an overactive imagination too.
Word Nerd recommendation: Before summer's gone, get this book. It'll make a great capstone for the summer reading list.

Author Answers with Jacqueline Carey

This week's author is fantasy writer Jacqueline Carey. Her Kushiel series has won several awards since the first one debuted in 2001.

For more on Carey, visit her website.

WN: Your latest book, "Kushiel's Justice" came out this summer. When youstarted the first one, did you expect it to grow into a series like this?

CAREY: At the very beginning, no. By the time I finished, I sensed the possibility and left the door open. I took a break to let the creative wells refill, and behold! The overall series arc took shape in my mind.

WN: The world you've created for the Kushiel series is quite complex anddetailed. How did you go about your world building, and how do you keepit all organized now?

CAREY: Research, research, research! Some elements are pure fabrication, but because I’m writing alternate historical fantasy, most of the cultures, mythologies and geographies are based on real-world analogues. I’m always on the lookout for those little details that breathe life into a scene. I’d love to say I have an efficient system for keeping it all organized, but in truth, it’s all stored in my mind... which is a very crowded place.

WN: What's your writing process like?

CAREY: Once I have the basic framework and itinerary of a plot in mind, I do a lot of research up front. After I begin writing, I research on the fly as questions like “What’s the saline content of an iceberg?” arise. When I’m immersed in a project, I write for 3-4 hours a day. I’m an edit-as-you-go writer. Every day begins with polishing the previous day’s writing, and I can’t move forward until it’s as smooth as I can make it. No skipping ahead for me, ever!

WN: Were you a reader as a kid... what turned you on to reading/writingbooks?

CAREY: Yes, I’m a lifelong reader. I suspect that would have been true no matter what, but I also credit my mother for reading extensively to my brothers and me. The last book she read aloud to us was “Watership Down,” which took a long time. As soon as she finished, she handed it to me so I could reread it for myself. Don’t tell my old teachers, but I started writing when I was sixteen and bored in high school! It became an addictive hobby that turned into a genuine calling years later.

WN: What's the best part of being a writer to you? What's the most challenging part of writing for you?

CAREY: For me, the best part is being able to do what I love for a living. There are writers who, as the saying goes, hate writing, but love having written. I love the actual process of writing. Consequentially, the most challenging part is ending a major project. I know I need downtime, but I’m always at a loss. What is the best/most influential book you have ever read and why did it inspire you? I always go back to Mary Renault’s “The Persian Boy,” a novel about the latter half of Alexander the Great’s life. I borrowed it from a camp counselor when I was ten years old, and it was the first grown-up novel I’d ever read. It introduced me to the wonder of bringing to life a world that no longer was, populated with gods and heroes and villains. That led me to one day create a world that never was, but might have been.

Book Banter Archives

Word Nerd hasn't reread many of the books since she started blogging, but yesterday, she finished her second trip through Anne Frasier's Pale Immortal. Word Nerd wanted to read it again before reading an advanced reader copy of the sequel, Garden of Darkness. She was fairly sure she remembered what happened, but just in case she was forgetting details, she wanted to read it again.

The first review still stands, so, if you missed it in 2006, here's the link for playing catch up.