Caught Chapter Icons

I have less than 10 chapters left to edit with Caught!  As I’ve been toiling away on the words, I was thinking about the images.  I’m a huge fan of art.  I often say if I were rich, my “rich guy purchases” would all be related to art.  When I go to conventions, I collect business cards and buy the art from those around.

My brother Ben Duke was the artist who created the chapter icons for The Journals of Bob Drifter.  I’ve been a huge believer in my books being opportunities for many people.  My best friend from junior high did the cover for Journals.

Ben did amazing work on Journals, but he wasn’t able to do the icons for Caught, so I looked to give someone else an opportunity.  Along came Jessica Tahbonemah.  I’d originally hired Jess to help me with my social media presence.  She messaged me and asked if she could give the icons a shot.  I gave her a loose concept and a few images for inspiration.  She worked hard and sent me the first image…

 

This image and all images in this post were created by Jess Tahbonemah and are the property of M.L.S. Weech.  Any use without his permission is prohibited.

This image is the chapter icon for Kaitlyn.  As this is a book about characters trapped in a repeating series of night terrors, these icons represent their dream avatars.  For Kaitlyn, her avatar was this minotaur.  You see this creature quite a lot in the first half of the book. This was the image that Jess basically “auditioned” with, and I knew when she finished it that she was going to do well.

 

I’d seen a video when I was a kid that stuck with me.  I can’t even tell you the name of the song even though I’d looked it up when I was trying to explain my vision to Jess.  This is the icon for Chris.  The man on fire is central to Chris’s back story.  I like the energy of this image. I did the most work with Chris in edits.  I wanted to make his role in the story more relevant.  I feel I’ve accomplished that with these edits.  As you can see, I’m quite unreasonable with my demands on my artists.  With Journals, I asked Ben for a glass of Scotch.  Here, Jess asked what I was thinking, and I replied with, “I need a man on fire.”  She sent an initial concept, and after I looked at that is when I sent a few stills from the video.  I think it’s funny because I can’t remember a note or word from the song, but that image stayed with me for decades.

 

So I followed a demanding image with a few that were more simplistic.  Graham is an intriguing character for me in terms of motivation.  He got more lime-light when I removed another character’s POV.  Graham’s role is more pivotal, and these glasses are a common “beat” in his chapters.  It’s simple, but it’s honestly the best, most recognizable symbol for him.

 

Caden is one of my all-time favorite characters.  He really forced me to stretch as a writer, and he’s been a character screaming in my head for more than 20 years.  The original concept (which evolved from outline to draft) was about characters facing their fears, and Caden is NOT a fan of “the bad chair.”  I mean, who isn’t afraid of this symbol?  The electric chair is every bit as symbolic as the act of binding and the act of blinding.  Jess did an amazing job with all the elements I wanted in this image.  It’s VERY complex.  I have to give her credit though, the shadow was all her idea.

 

 

This image required a lot of research.  First off, Ben (my brother, beta reader, confidant, advisor and all-around best friend), wasn’t a fan of the name of Steve’s team.  You recall a deleted scene I posted in an earlier blog?  Dom and Kira are members of his team.  We played around with a few options.  Ben sent me a text with the name Oneiros.  Oneiroi are symbols of dreams in Greek mythology.  So search after search lead me around until I found this image of Morpheus, the god of dreams.  Morpheus is also a hyponym of Oneiroi, which means dreams.  Oneiroi are the brothers of Hypnos, Thanatos and Geras.  To get this image for Steve, I stayed with the teams name and a symbol of their namesake.

 

Sal is the main character, and his image and part of his back story (the mundane part I assure you) comes from my own experiences with Combat Camera.  Lions are important symbols in the places I’ve been (particularly Iraq).  One of my main jobs in Iraq was to document the training and missions of a joint group known as the Golden Lions.  Since documenting those missions was such a big part of my first combat deployment, I wanted to give a part of that to this character, who’s a patriot, a soldier, and a protector above all things.  Again, I’m a bit nostalgic.  This image and the minor role it plays in the book is just a tip of my hat to a team I was very proud to work with.

 

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And there you have it.  The six chapter icons for the six points of view from my next book.  What do you think?  Which is your favorite?  I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.  As it is, I have about 8 chapters left to revise, edit, and proofread, so I’m going to get back to that.

 

Thanks for reading,

Matt

On Finishing Plateau: my first ever novel

I promised The Angry Farmer I’d reblog this when I felt like the blog would have solid viewing time on my page. Give the post a look. Another author has finished his first book. Send him some applause. It takes commitment to get there. I hope the edits go well.

The Angry Farmer

Well bloody hell.

I’ve finished Plateau today! My first ever novel/book/anything! It’s just over 61,000ish words and is now in pre-edit, a.k.a. I’m leaving it alone for a month so I don’t start fussing over it. There’s a bigger explanation of what the bloody hell on the Feedback page detailed below. The book was written ‘live’ daily, I tried to do at least one chapter a day, hence its need for polish and shine.

There’s a new page in the Plateau section for feedback; if you’ve kindly donated time to reading it, I would love to hear what you think! I’ve completed the WIP full text version to the pre-edit finished article if you want to jump ahead; otherwise I’ll bung up the final chapters this week in bits each day, so as not to spam.

[NB. The Everlasting Night is horror, you’ve been warned!]

Full Novel (Pre-edit)

By Chapter…

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The Wrath of Cons: An Indie Author’s Guide to Conventions

So a while back, I posted my blog about finding new readers.  Quintessential Editor brought up a great idea in which I post some of my successes and mistakes.    Being the dutiful Brown Piper than I am, I sat down and wrote it my next “blog writing” day.

How to Find Them:  Well, in some cases, they found me.  They found my website or my book and shot me an email.  What this should tell you all is it’s a business.  They have table to sell to vendors, and you’re vendors.  If you go to one convention, they’ll have flyers for pretty much every other convention you could dream of.  Snag the flyers.  They usually have tables themselves, so you can ask them for an “artist alley” form and sign up.  (More on that later).  I’m based in Maryland, so I just google “Maryland Comic/Supernatural/(INSERT RELEVANT THING) Conventions,” and start shopping.  Just shop for the right ones.

Which Ones Should You Go To:  The closer they are to your genera or plot, the better.  It’ll be tempting to just got to every one you can, but trust me, it SUCKS to sit at a table for 8-hours a day for three days for no reason.  Don’t go to who will have you, go to the ones your readers are going to.  For me, comic conventions, science fiction conventions, Supernatural (the TV show) conventions are all great opportunities because that’s where people who love my book will go.

Big or Small:  My second convention was Awesome Con.  Another author told me it was a bad choice.  You see, that convention is huge, and the table price was higher because of it.  My table selection wasn’t smart (I PROMISE I’ll get there), but I wouldn’t trade that convention for anything.  I sold about 10% of the books I’ve sold so far at that first event.  Maybe that’s not good for most, but there’s a few reasons for that.

(TANGENT):  That author was right in one way.  I was at a table with one book.  That meant the most books I was going to sell per customer was, well, one.  Any author there with more than one book could literally sell twice as many books per customer as I could.  This is why I advise self-publishers not to go indie until they have at least two books ready to go.  It opens doors for marketing and repeat business.  I may be alone in this, but it made sense to me, and I saw it work in practice.

Artist Alley:  There are usually a  few types of booths.  You want an artist alley table, not a vendor table.  What’s the difference?  About $300.

How Many Books to Bring:  I get a lot of varying opinions here.  I made the mistake of buying a BUNCH of books, thinking I’d sell out at my first event.  It didn’t work out for me.  I sell about thirty books an event.  That’s on the low side.  I mentioned one reason above, the other reason is the price per book.  I made a lot of mistakes in publishing Bob, that cover price is one I’m literally still paying for.  I didn’t pick it.  I sell it on my website and at conventions at the biggest discount I can.  The next convention I go to, I’ll have Caught available.  I’ll bring sixty (thirty of each) to the event.

Matt’s Guide:  Don’t buy a table for more that $200.  Bring enough to profit $200.  This means you’d have to sell enough to earn that money plus what you paid to get that table.  Don’t forget to factor in gas and/or lodging.  If you sell out, celebrate, and adjust your inventory for next time.  (Any of my other indie authors out there, PLEASE don’t hesitate to comment on how many you bring to an event).  The more inventory you have, the more you should bring.

Marketing or No Marketing:  I always bring something, but I honestly don’t think I’ve sold a single book from any of the cards or bookmarks I’ve given out.    What they DO is open the door.  If you offer them something free right off the bat, they’ll probably be ready to hear your pitch.

Have a Pitch:  You better be ready to talk to people.  I have what I call an elevator pitch and then a small series of tidbits that helps.  One thing I do is something I learned when I heard an author speak a while back.  I forget what she calls it, but I call it the blending technique.  I take two things that are similar to my book.  I tell people the book is “Supernatural meets Dead Like Me.”

Those who say I shamelessly rip off Odd Thomas are also correct.  I don’t just say that to say it.  I genuinely feel that my book takes the tone of Supernatural and the situation of Dead Like Me and combines them into something new.  Give them the plot hook.  Have reviews ready. Have a  sell display.  That’s just a small stand-up display that you put on the table that has some reviews on it.  Me personally, I just print out multiple copies of a few and hand them out.
Tables Are Barriers:  If you have a  corner table, life is great.   I try to stand in front of my table four an hour or so, then I sit down for a while.  I wouldn’t do this if I were in the middle of a row.  You’re in the way of customers and other people trying to sell their hopes and dreams.  I’ve seen people spend the whole convention on their feet, in front of their table, and it worked.  They were in a corner table.

The Gretzky Approach:  A person not spoken to is a sale not made.  I’m confident I have a  pretty good feel for people.  So if a guy walks in with an F-U tattoo on his forehead just for me, I leave him (or her) alone.   I’m not there to jump in people’s face, and they’re not there to be accosted.  But I do say hello to EVERY person who walks by my booth.  I do offer them whatever I have to give, and I do ask them, “Can I tell you about my book?”  Boy do I love it when that beautiful cover of mine draws someone over.  That thing does half my work for me.  But at the end of the day, you have to be approachable.  Saying hello and BEING personable helps.

J.R. Handley offered some advice in the comments section of the blog mentioned above.  It all lined up with what I’ve seen.  He mentioned Dead Robots Society Podcast and Kristen Martin.    I’d be a fool not to mention them, and I think anyone about to start marketing at conventions should check them out as well.  J.R. If you have the direct links to either of those specific podcasts or Vlogs, please thrown them in the comments section and I’ll switch up the links.

I mentioned bookmarks.  Every convention I went to had some sort of cover.  I’m frankly too broke to buy much more than the table I sit at, and the promotional stuff I bring.  I’m not saying its a bad idea, I’m just saying I can’t do it.

Take Credit:  Not for your work, I’m pretty sure your name is on the book cover.  I mean have a  way to take credit.   I have a  pretty good split between cash and credit customers, but having that option means a lot.

Steal Ideas:  I saw one author create a display.  She offered to autograph that for people who bought the ebook from her QR Code reader.  I did it, and it does work.  That also did a LOT to help me reduce the pain of that cover price.  The e-version of my book is every bit as entertaining, and I make about the same profit.  This gives them the book, gives you a reader, and let’s them have something you can sign.  I think everyone wins.  That’s an idea I stole from someone I saw selling well at an earlier convention.

Bring Help:  Usually tables come with at least one other badge.  Take it, invite a friend.  Let him or her have fun, and have that person sit in for you when you have a panel or need a break (or you want a picture with that awesome person you’re a huge fan of.  No Corey, I’m not going to post that picture, I’m too afraid it’ll appear as appropriation.  I do make every effort to meet people I’d like to meet. I DO NOT try to sell THEM my book.  In fact, I try not to sell vendors my book.  They’re at the convention to sell products, work, and earn a living just like me.  If we just buy each other’s stuff, we’re not making any money.  Anyway, having someone there to help is great.

Sign Up For Panels:  Every convention has a request form for a panel.  Get a group together and have one.  I’ve done about three panels.  They’re fun, and they’re a great way to meet those ever elusive new readers.

Get Pictures:  Oh do I suck at this, but I mean to get better.  Getting pictures and posting them on social media really does a lot to legitimize your presence.  The help I mentioned above would be awesome for that.  Whatever you do though, get pictures and post them.  (NOTE:  all kidding with Corey aside, make sure you inform the customer what you’re taking it for and what you intend to do with it.  They have some rights.  You do too, but save yourself a lot of pain and just talk to people, especially if they’ve already bought your book.)

These events are DRAINING!  I love them, but they’re a ton of work.  If you have the time to take a vacation day, do it.  You should be exhausted, but you should also have fun.

Anyone else have a  few tips I haven’t mentioned?   I’d love to see them in the comments below.

Thanks for reading,

Matt

SIBA Update

Tomorrow is Sept. 1, and the Summer Indie Book Awards are scheduled to open voting.  If you sign up here for the newsletter, they’ll send you a genre link.  You can also vote through Facebook at this link.  You can get a bit more information on the host’s page.  The folks at Metamorph Publishing are committed to making this event a success.

As you all know, I was nominated for the award’s fantasy category.  If you’ve been following me on Facebook, you already know, but I’d like to make it official.  I’ve also been nominated in the paranormal category.

I can’t begin to describe how happy I am to receive one nomination, much less two.  Every artist appreciates being recognized, and receiving this nomination is a form of recognition in itself.  I still encourage everyone to vote only for the books you’ve read and enjoy, but I’d like to summarize the rules.

The poll is being run through pollmaker, and you’ll be allowed to vote one time a day from the first until Sept. 11.  You can vote for just one category, multiple, or all of them.  Also of note is the fact that you can vote for multiple books in a single category.  I appreciate that this allows for people to vote, but I’ve always been a sort of one or none guy myself.

You’ll see each choice with a box next to it.  You’ll be able to check each option you wish and then click vote.  Be sure you’ve clicked all the options you want to support before you hit the vote button, and make sure hit vote.  You can vote only once a day, but you can vote multiple days.

I wanted to take a few moments update you all and remind you to stop by tomorrow and vote.

Thanks for reading

Matt

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling

Spoiler Free Summary:  17 years after the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry, Ron, and Hermione are all grown up with children of their own.  Harry’s youngest is the odd man out.  It picks up right where the last book left off, only we find out who young Albus Potter sits next to on the train, and it’s the most unlikely person.  Albus struggles to be the boy who’s the son of the boy who lived, and he and his friend Scorpious find all the wrong ways to make a name for themselves.  When they find a mission for themselves, a mission designed to fix one of Harry’s past mistakes, they only end up discovering the costs of trying to be heroes.

(NOTE:  This isn’t a book.  It’s a script.  I think it was wise and kind of those involved to let people who love that world see what the next chapter is, and they did so in the most immediate format available.  If you just want to KNOW what happened, this does the trick.  Also, this isn’t a Harry Potter book.  He has a significant role, but the book isn’t really about him.)

Character:  This part frustrated me a bit.  Albus has a solid arc, and he’s very proactive, which helps, but things seem to move a little too quickly for my taste here.  It doesn’t hurt the book exactly, but readers should be ready to let a little development slide here.  You can probably give some of that to the performance as this is a script, not a novel.   I have to say this.  The lesson and arc Albus goes through is far less external than Harry.  I can see the reasoning here.  Harry had to beat the overlord.  How do you improve on that?  Options:  Bigger villain, or more dramatic focus.  The most interesting part of Albus is the lesson he learned because it was the only one there was for him to learn.

Scorpious, on the other hand completely steals the show for me.  I found him more compelling anyway.  He’s a young man who has to struggle with his family’s mistakes, and all he wants to do is be a kid.  My opinion, this story falls short if Scorpious isn’t in it.  Where Harry was clearly the hero of the last generation, Scorpious carved a place for himself in my heart.  Sure, Albus does some cool things, but he wasn’t nearly as heroic as his friend.

Exposition: This was a script, so we get a little insight into emotions and stage direction, but this is heavy based on dialogue.

Worldbuilding:  This is where I think the book falls short.  The writers are asking readers to believe that nearly two decades have passed, and there wasn’t a hint of progress in the world?  Where the Mistborn world and even The Last Airbender worlds evolved, there’s nothing in this book to show any passage of time.  This will be grounds for argument for anyone who cares to waste oxygen on it, but if the only reason they’re still using owls to communicate is because they always have, then what significant contributions are there to be made in the wizarding world?  Especially with a Minister of Magic who was raised in a muggle world.

I think this is a failure on the part of the writers.  I was glad to see more of the world of Harry Potter.  We even get a peek at some magical developments.  So if want you want is pretty much EXACTLY the same world you left, then you’re in luck.  Of course, if you really wanted that, you could actually just reread the original series.  For me, if I read a book nearly two decades after the last, I want some worldbuilding ways to note said passage of time.

Dialogue:  I don’t actually know if the dialogue is “good” here.  There’s a lot of it.   The character’s voices feel unique.  I’ve never read a script before, so perhaps there’s some expectation the actors will bring the words to life.  It’s honest to say it didn’t meet my expectations, but that my expectations were higher because I knew dialogue would drive the story.

Description:  Again, this was a script, so there’s not much there.

Overall:  It was nostalgic to go back to this world and see what’s happened.  I can say what I want about the worldbuilding, but that doesn’t diminish the wonderful characters in the story, nor does is make this book unentertaining.  It is a fun, fast-paced story that I’m glad was published.  I love knowing “what happened next,” and this book does that for us.  I read this in about two days (which is fast even for me).  Yes, I was more happy to see these characters in a new story than I was impressed with the actual plot, but it was still enjoyable.  If you love Harry Potter, I imagine you’ll like this next chapter.  If you didn’t love the world and style of the books though, you’ll be disappointed because it’s the same in this book.

I’m not actually one of those who sing the praises of J.K. Rowling.  She did a lot for this industry, and I really enjoyed the saga.  I’m just a bit less in awe of her actual writing, and I had some serious problems with Deathly Hallows.  Regardless, I was very happy I read Cursed Child.   I was glad to see the characters again, and I’d look forward to more from this new generation.

Thanks for reading

Matt

Book Review: Magic-Scars by C.L. Schneider

One great thing about being on vacation is I can read much more.  I reblogged my review of the Summer Indie Book Award-nominated Magic-Price last week anticipating I’d be ready to post my review of Magic-Scars today.  This review also gives me a chance to try out my new format for reviews.

A note on format:  Reviews are essentially opinions.  Everybody has one, and at the end of the day, a person either likes a book or doesn’t.  The real question is how to be objective.  As a writer myself, I love an overall opinion of my book, but I also look for honest feedback.  So I’m taking a page from the writer’s group I was in while stationed in San Diego.  It allowed me to be objective.  It also allowed me to separate myself from what I think of the person.

This format came from what I like about books and what I look for when I read books.  My hope is that if readers don’t care about a certain aspect, they can skip to one they do. I’ll also give an overall opinion, which you can also scroll to directly.  Please feel free to comment on the format below as I want to help authors improve and readers find books they might like to read.

Spolier Free Summary:  Magic-Scars is a sequel to Magic-Price.  Scars is the second book in the Crown of Stones Trilogy.  It takes place a few years after Price.  Ian Troy is still fighting with his friends to stop his father from using magic to take over the world.  The readers get a lot of treats here in terms of secrets revealed and progress in the story.

Character:  Ian Troy is awesome.  He’s why I liked book one, and he’s why I’m eager to read Magic-Borne, though I do want to read this Potter book I’ve heard tell about first.  (NOTE:  This has more to do with me trying to read The Cursed Child before someone spoils it.  I’m actually more excited to read Borne at this point.)  The first-person narrative drives Ian home, but I’ll be honest, I’m officially frustrated I can’t see more of the other characters.  The world is so deep.  As much as I love Ian, I’m upset that I can’t get into any other heads.  It doesn’t necessarily hurt the book at all because, like all books that do first-person narrative well, Ian is a wonderfully sympathetic, proactive character.  This is my number one requirement of all books.  I don’t care how cool the magic system is.  I don’t care how intricate the world building is.  If the main character isn’t sympathetic and proactive, it doesn’t rank very well on my book.

Ian isn’t the only reason to keep reading though.  There’s a whole cast of characters that are fascinating.  First-person narrative allowed Schneider to keep the scope of the world from getting out of control, but I’d have happily read two or three more books in the series if it meant I could have gleamed more insight as to the motivations of the other characters.  Like I said, it doesn’t hurt the book.

Exposition: Another benefit of first-person narrative is the fact that it sort of cheats the bulk of exposition.  Schneider didn’t beat us to death with exposition, but there’s a lot of it.  It’s woven in well with great dialogue, and it’s only something you notice if you’re up at 4 a.m. reviewing a few chapters to get a feel for it.  In my opinion, if a reader has to go back to the book and look for exposition, it was done right.

Worldbuilding:  This is one of Schneider’s two main strengths.  The magic system is complex.  As I think on it more and more, I’ll do what I always do and start looking for ways to punch holes in the system.  That’s the cool part about fantasy books like this.  As deep and well designed as the world is, there are a few questions about how the magic works that I’m hopeful the last book addresses.  The world itself is intricately designed, as are the cultures, histories and races of this series.

Everything feels real while reading this.  Yes, there are things about the magic system that give me questions, but I’m willing to let it go until I read the last book.  None of those questions feel like cheats.  Usually, by book two, I like to have a pretty solid feel for how a magic system works.  My gripe is that, while the basic premise is easy to grasp, I still can’t quite summarize the mechanics of how the system works.  This may be because the system is a part of the plot.  As we learn about the magic, we understand what’s going on in the book more.  To just come out with it would cheat the reader of discovering certain things for themselves.  Only those obsessed with diagraming and breakdown of abilities would be disappointed.  Bonus points for the Eldering.  Their history was a nice touch.

Dialogue:  This is sort of in the middle for me.  The characters all have a unique voice.  The exchanges feel more-or-less natural.  I can’t pretend to know what makes dialogue “better,” but the dialogue here isn’t bad at all.  There are a few instances where some readers might argue some of the interactions, but I’m not one of them.

Description:  I have a better sense of the world than I do the characters.  I naturally see Ian more clearly in my mind that the other characters.  I confess characters don’t sit well in my imagination to begin with.  What I do know is that all the characters get their fair share of description.  It’s not enough to get through my particularly thick skull, but I think most readers will be fine with it. I think the settings are stronger because they bring better images to my imagination.  What Schneider does well though is weave those things in.  I hate being beaten to death with description or minute detail.  Not once in the book did I skim over a section because I felt it was just overwritten description.

A note on content:  There are some adult scenes in this book.  Normally, this is an automatic turn-off for me.  I’m more a “Fade to black” scene kind of guy.  Things get steamy in this novel, but it’s not over done.  In fact, one of my favorite parts in the book (one that sums up Ian rather nicely) is in such a scene. These scenes don’t oversaturate the book or get in the way of the plot.  It’s a well-done balance in my opinion.

Overall:  I was a big fan of Price, and Scars is much better.  Scars pays off on the potential Schneider demonstrated with Price.  It’s a great second act that has just enough cliffhanger to make you want to jump straight to book three without robbing you of feeling like you’ve finished reading a novel.  (I absolutely hate true cliffhangers).   I’ll rate it on Amazon and Goodreads because they help authors, but ratings really are more or less an awful tool.  People either like books or they don’t.  So I won’t be providing a rating here because I wouldn’t invest 1,200 words on a book I didn’t love.  I wouldn’t have already bought the next book in the series either.    I’ll end with this…

I’ve made no secret that Schneider is a friend of mine.  What I feel is important to point out is that she became my friend because she’s a wonderful person who’s been an amazing help to me and my own development.  What made me seek her out was an amazing cover and a damn-well written book.  I sought her out because she has skills I admire in a writer.  If you’re looking for a great, fast-paced book to read, look no further.

Thanks for reading

Matt

Summer Indie Book Awards

Earlier, I announced via Facebook that The Journals of Bob Drifter has been nominated into the Fantasy category for the Summer Indie Book Awards.  This, I felt warranted a lot.  Here’s a list of all the nominees.

First:  I can’t tell you what an honor this is.  Whatever happens, just the fact that enough people liked my book and nominated it means the world to me.

(TANGENT)  I talk to my friends a lot about my writing.  They know what an effort I make just to keep myself relevant in the indie publishing world.  It’s a lot of work, and marketing isn’t what I want to do with my life, it’s just what I have to do if I want my books to sell.  If given the choice between the New York Times Best Seller List or ten readers who absolutely loved my book, I’d go with the ten.

I want people to like my stories way more than I want my stories to sell.  Don’t get me wrong, I’d much rather have a million sales with just as many positive reviews from happy readers who liked my book.  It’s ridiculous to think EVERYONE who reads my book will love it, but I’m proud to say most of the people who’ve read Journals at least like my book. Heck, most of them even love it.  That’s worth a lot in and of itself.

Second: One thing I beg all of you to do is to head over to the link above and like their page.  Sign up to vote.  Anyone who tries to recognize anyone should receive as much support as possible.  I humbly request all of you do so with this organization.

Third:  Voting begins Sept. 1.  You can sign up for online voting here. I’m not sure how the voting will go, but I know it’s scheduled to run until Sept. 11.

Now for the really important part.  Let’s talk about awards.  I can not begin to express how competitive I am.  If there is a human being out there who likes winning more than me, I don’t think I’ve met the individual yet.  The more I want to win, the more ridiculous I get.  But winning for the sake of winning is altogether meaningless.

I want as many people to vote.  I want everyone who’s ever read a single nominated title to vote, but the only books you should vote for are the ones you’ve read and truly loved.  I’m talking, “If you were stranded on a desert island and could only bring one book (aside from the Bible.  I’m a terrible Christian, but I’m not THAT poor a man of faith.) which one would it be?”

I don’t know if you’re aware of the Hugo Awards, but year after year it seems there is more and more controversy surrounding what should be the most respected award of its kind.  This is heartbreaking to me.  I LOVE the Hugos.  I’ve read the first four, and every Hugo winner since 2010.  I’ve voted twice.  This is because I only vote in categories where I’ve read every book nominated.  I have favorite authors, but I don’t vote for my favorite author; I vote for the story I think best encompasses what I feel the Hugo represents.  Some years, I luck out and have time to read them all; some years, I don’t.

In this situation, there are simply too many for that to be an even rational, much less reasonable demand.  However, I’ve looked at the list twice, and I personally nominated three of the books, and I’ve read at least five.  I’m not asking you to read them all, though I hope you’ll give all the nominees a chance.  Just think, a lot of people thought these books worthy of an award.  I myself plan to update my TBR list accordingly.

This isn’t me campaigning for you to vote for my book.  I know EXACTLY how many people have a copy of my book.  If they love it and vote for it, I’m honored.  What I’m asking is that you vote, and you vote for the one book you love above others (see the aforementioned standard).  Next year, the eligibility requirements will shift.  I intend to try and read the nominees just as I do the Legend and Hugo awards.   (NOTE:  By some happenstance, I usually end up reading the Legend Nominees well before the voting begins.)

As I said, I’ve read at least five of these books, and they’re good books, a few are even great.  I have a lot of sayings around my students.  The most relevant one today is, “I don’t want to be the best; I want to be the best of the best.”

In the Navy, I was a pretty decently decorated and recognized mass communication specialist.  The biggest honor of my career was frocking (translation:  I got to put his new rank on his collar) on of my former students to petty officer second class.  (Hi Scott!).  This is closely followed by the opportunity to put pins (Um…cool Navy medals that mean they know a lot of stuff) on the two young men I deployed to Afghanistan with.  In fact, everything I brag the most about was how hard I worked to help others earn promotion and recognition.  I want to be a part of something great wherever I go.  The Slush Brain is an AMAZING group of equally AMAZING authors.

What does this mean for this award and others?  Well, if I win, I want it to be because the people who read my book though it was the best book they read out of whatever other nominated books they’ve read.  If I lose, I want to purchase the winner’s book, read it, and say, “No wonder!  This book is AWESOME!”  (Yes, I realize I don’t have a very big adjective lexicon.)

So instead of rallying for votes.  I’m rallying for readers.  Read these books.  Read one of them.  Read ten.  Whatever book you vote for, buy the other books from that same author.  I’m honored to be a part of the indie author community, and I want others to see how wonderful (found another adjective) their work is too.  Support SIBA by liking their page, reading what nominated books you have the time to read, and voting, not for the person you like the most, but for the book you like the most.

Once more, I’m honored to be nominated,  I’m overjoyed to see a few dear friends also received nominations (Hi Cindy! Hi Angela!).  I wish all the nominees the best of luck, and I wish all of the voters happy reading.

Thanks for reading,

Matt

Book Review: Over Your Dead Body by Dan Wells

I still feel as if Dan Wells is one of the most underrated authors out there.  The John Wayne Cleaver series continues to be an amazing story about a young man who knows he’s capable of evil, and in fact desires to be evil, and chooses to be good.

This reason alone makes the book worthy.  OYDB is more predictable than some of the other John Cleaver stories, but I wonder if that wasn’t intentional.  For me, this book was less bout the identity of the monster and how it operates and more about the effect that information would have on John.

Where The Devil’s Only Friend bridged the first three books to this new direction, OYDB continues to push the potential of the series into new directions.  It takes place relatively soon after the events of TDOF.   The wit is every bit as charming.  The conflict is every bit as compelling.  The ending was every bit as tragically beautiful as I’ve come to expect from Wells.

This is part of a series, so if you haven’t started with book one, I recommend you do.  You’ll be the lucky one though as you can read the whole series up to this point in a row; where as I had to wait for each book.

Thanks for reading,

Matt

 

Book Review: Magic-Price by C.L. Schneider (REBLOG)

I posted this review last year when I finished reading Magic-Price.  As I’m nearly done reading Magic-Scars, I wanted to remind everyone what convinced me to read the rest of the trilogy.

I bought this book because I saw its amazing cover while trolling on Twitter.  I’m very glad I purchased it.  What makes this book stand out is its blending of original ideas.  I’ve read books where magic is addictive.  I’ve read books where magic has a price.  Here, C.L. Schneider blends the two to create an interesting source of conflict that also helps make her main character more compelling.  There are other forms of blending that I like in this.  The originality of this book is in the juxtaposition of ideas to create something new.  As an author, that in itself was impressive.  The fact that some of these themes I recognize (whether by intent of happenstance I do not know) are from other stories that I love only amplify my appreciation for this book.

Most books that get four-star reviews from me (on Goodreads or Amazon) tend to have compelling, proactive characters, Troy has both.  His supporting cast is equally compelling.  It’s not common for me to like books with a scope like this told from the first-person narrative.  This is because I tend to want to get in the head of multiple characters when they interest me.  Even the antagonist has a point of view I would like to investigate in the future.  Still, the use of first-person narrative was skillful enough that I could look past my desire to know what other characters were thinking.

I’ve mentioned a few times how I have what I call “drop what you’re reading” authors.  Honestly, Sanderson and Wells top the list in print form.  Butcher and Brett top that list in audio form.  I mention this because I also have authors who I love being able to go back to.  Let’s call them “What can I count on if I want a good book” authors.

Schneider has placed herself in this category for me.  It’s important to have a solid stable of writers to turn to, writers that you know will provide books with solid, interesting plots; compelling characters; and just solid writing.  I’ll probably wait for a few books in the series to come out (or for it to finish).  This isn’t because the books aren’t good.  It’s actually the opposite.  One of the best things that happened to me as a reader was getting handed Book One of the Wheel of Time.  One of the worst things to happen was receiving Book One before Book 12 was finished (much less 13 and 14).  As a result, I tend to be very picky about what series I start and when.  So don’t take my waiting as an indication of quality.  Instead, see it as the truth that I can only handle anxiously waiting for so many different books at a time.

Anyone looking for an original magic system, intelligent blending of ideas into something original, compelling characters and seat-of-your pants action should give this book a chance.  I don’t think you’ll regret it.

Thanks for Reading
M.L.S. Weech

The Chaos Walking Trilogy Review

Dave (At Dave’s Corner of the Universe) brought up an interesting point about first person narrative, and I thought of the Chaos Walking Trilogy.  I read this about a year before I got published and posted my review on Facebook, but given the relevance to my blog about narrative, I though it appropriate to post here on blog now.

The Knife of Never Letting Go, by Patrick Ness:

I simply love the audiobook.  The narrator was brilliant!

I can’t in good conscience give Knife the rave review I want to. I enjoyed it. Book one of the Chaos Walking Trilogy was exciting, emotional and intriguing. I immediately bought audiobooks 2 and 3 for the series when I finished Knife. So why can’t I rave about it? Because the end of book 1 was in the prologue of book 2.

 

A friend and I talk a lot about ruining endings, and I hope this doesn’t, but as far as recommending books, he was right on the money. I really liked it, but if I had bought Knife and read it, the cliffhanger ending would have P’d me the F off, and do you think I said F? (Have I mentioned I love the main character Todd Hewitt?) So I’m not a fan of this as a stand alone novel.  It doesn’t end, nor does it have any resolution.

I understand that it was part of a trilogy, but I don’t understand why it couldn’t have ended with the prologue of book 2. Had they done that, I’d have thought way better of this as a stand alone.  It’s still amazing.  This book had my running the gamut of all my emotions. It’s touching, funny, tragic and beautiful, but unless you’re willing to buy all three (which I was), Knife, on its own disappoints. So while I feel forced to to not recommend JUST this book, I do so only as a stand alone book. I’ll grade the whole trilogy once I’m done (three chapters into book 2 now) and I have a feeling the trilogy as a whole will be great.

I then quickly finished the trilogy, and here are those thoughts:

Audiobook Review: The Chaos Walking Trilogy by Patrick Ness

I’ve previously reviewed “The Knife of Never Letting Go,” book one of the trilogy. I simply burned through the other two books to quickly to review them one at a time.  I love this series.

For one, it’ll just annoy the hell out of you because the first two end in a cliffhanger, though book two is pretty complete in my opinion. The other reason is how beautiful the story is. The depth of characters, the scope of the issues and the emotion each moment brings is too strong not to recommend. It’s been labeled young adult reading, but I wouldn’t really want my niece reading this, and she’s reading at something like a high school level. (NOTE:  At the time of writing this, my niece was barely in junior high)  I’ll resist the urge to talk about how well the story was written as it relates to the way the trilogy ends.

This is a series about hope, love redemption and sacrifice. It’s prose and point of view is touching and compelling. I would even go so far as to say (in entertainment value alone) it’s better than the John Cleaver series (but not by much) and I’ve already raved about that.  (AUTHOR NOTE:  I did, and I will because my review of “Over Your Dead Body” is coming.) I should warn you that the two stories aren’t similar in plot or scope, I just wanted to establish a baseline for comparison.

I will say that I would ONLY recommend this for audiobook. The cast is fantastic. I absolutely HATE 1st person, and the only thing I hate more is present tense. These books are written 1st person, present tense, but it’s done right. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed if you buy the actual book, but you’d be missing out on some great audiobook narration.