Book Release: Fury of the Falcon

At last. The fifth and final volume of the Falcons Saga hits Amazon today. Find it HERE. The print version will be available in about a week, once I receive and finalize the last proof.

How long have I been waiting to type that announcement?

Looks like I started blogging about this massive project back in 2011, but it's been in the works far longer than that. A long, rough haul. Closure is a good feeling. The possibilities at this point are endless, and I'm optimistic.

I thought I had many words to express over this event, but after five volumes at 150k-220k words apiece, my words are pretty well dried up at the moment. A little silence may be in order. My characters don't mind. They're tired too. But, my, what a ride.

CRY OF THE FALCON, to be released in February!

FINISHED!!! Cry of the Falcon is finished. Just a few days to format and correct a few typos, then I can push this one out the door. This was a loooong haul. Arduous, agonizing at times. I just told my husband, "I feel like I've birthed an army of ogres." If you haven't read my books, you won't get the joke. Shame, shame. 

Yep, I'm a proud, happy mother:

Isn't he kewt? Okay, so this is NOT how I envision my ogres, but those muscles are still cool, right?

So what's next? Lots of exciting stuff in the works. Not only will Cry of the Falcon be released in February, but all the earlier books in the Falcons Saga have received a make-over with a few typos and inconsistencies edited, new blurbs, and slightly new covers. All this because Blood of the Falcon, volume 2, is getting a new title, new cover, and new interior, and throws off all the other books. So I've been doing lots of work on all of them.

I hope to re-release the entire Saga with the publication of Cry.

Secondly, and here's the exclusive scoop, the never-before revealed funness (no, "funness" is not really a word):

*drumroll*

... the unveiling of Raven Eye Press. All the re-releases will include a custom logo designed by graphic designer Elle Boozer and will be listed on a new site dedicated to the press. The site has a bit more work to undergo before it's ready, so I still have much to do before I can take a vacation.

More to come...

SONS OF THE FALCON now available!

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Hallelujah! It's done. A year of writing and feeling like the novel would never be finished, yet here it is. Finished already. Sons of the Falcon, Book 2 of the Falcons Saga, has been uploaded, approved, and is now available at Amazon and CreateSpace.

It feels amazing, like releasing lead balloons and seeing them fly weightlessly into the sky. And now? Do I ever need a vacation. My brain is shot, so I plan to spend the holiday months reading, refueling the brain cells, and maybe writing a couple of short stories if the inspiration strikes me. Then in January, I hope, work on the last book will begin. Fury of the Falcon is going to be quite a beast, let me tell you. Probably the longest of all the volumes, and the old draft is full of issues that must be fixed, which means lots of changes. Can you tell I'm trying not to be intimidated? But for now, I shall bask in the feeling of accomplishment...

Currently, the print edition of Sons is only available at CreateSpace. It will take a few more business days for it to become available at Amazon. It's priced competitively at $14.99. And like both volumes of Book 1, Sons is only .99 cents for a digital download. This weekend (Friday through Sunday), however, it will be available for FREE! So be sure to keep an eye out and an e-reader on hand, so you can download yours.
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Review: The Perfect Player by Devon Winterson

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Blurb:

"A forbidden tryst exposes a threat and sets a secret plan in motion, and twenty-year-old Marisa of Mynae discovers her life is all a lie. But even as a cryptic journal reveals her true purpose and a trail of hoofprints leads her to a demon renegade, Marisa balks at fate’s course until evil devours her people and imperils her father’s life. Only then does she learn what it takes to play – and win – a deadly game of predator versus prey." 

Review:

I had the privilege of reading a pre-release copy of Devon Winterson’s debut novel, The Perfect Player, which is due out on November 11, 2013—or, as I’m sure Devon would say, “On the eleventh day of the eleventh month at the eleventh hour.” Devon is a moderator at Writer’s Beat, an online community for writers, and her often hilarious and witty anecdotes and gracious interviews of indie authors can be found at her blog, The Ether of My Imagination.

As with all indie books I read, I started The Perfect Player as a skeptic, but soon became a believer. Granted, the hook in this dark fantasy comes a bit late. I didn’t feel fully engaged in the story until Marisa’s “crazy” mother makes an appearance toward the end of Chapter 2. After that point, there were times when the story was so intense that I could not put my Kindle down. While I read, I’m sure my eyes were bulging out.  

What I loved most about The Perfect Player were the layers of history and backstory woven into the plot. I kept saying to myself, “Wow, this is really complex.” The life Marisa thinks she is being prepared for is only a façade masking what really happened in the lives of her parents, and even events as far back as the creation of the world. These secret events provide a delectable puzzle to be worked out, both by the reader and Marisa herself.

Now, I did find some of my pet peeves in the writing style, and on occasion, the villains and the heroine speak lines that are just short of original in flavor. But most of the time, Devon’s writing is poetic, powerful, and rife with treats to the senses. She has painted a vivid world in which Marisa walks through lavender grasses with bare feet and drinks scented, opalescent elixir instead of water. Her characters soon spring off the page, full of flaws, complexity, hidden motives, and deep unfulfilled desires.

One of the most rewarding elements is that none of these characters are safe, not even the heroes we come to love. Unexpected twists and sudden loss make The Perfect Player a page-turner. Who will survive until The End? You’ll want to add this debut novel to your to-read list and find out on the eleventh day of the eleventh month at the eleventh hour.

I give The Perfect Player 4 out of 5 magic wands:

Purchasing information: The Perfect Player will be available on Amazon, in print and for the Kindle, on November 11, 2013.
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Comments on Gardens of the Moon

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It's not really proper to do a review on a book I didn't finish, but I worked too hard for too long to leave it alone. So I won't file this under my reviews, but merely voice my reaction in informal fashion.

Some people are sure to throw rotten eggs my way when I say that I could not finish Steven Erikson's Gardens of the Moon. More than once I heard, "If you can finish the first book, the rest are great." Red flag. But I had already bought the thing before I heard this general reaction, so I gave it a try. This book looked like my kind of book: a huge, well-developed world, dense with characters and details and subplots revolving around a big overarching quest. Indeed, this is exactly the kind of book Gardens of the Moon is. Unfortunately, though I have read to the halfway point, I cannot explain what any of those subplots are. I do not know. Seriously.

The problem with this novel is "withholding." There is so much going on, and some of the characters even know what is going on, but the reader is not told what that "thing" is. Some of this "thing" I was able to puzzle out. I think. And I'm not a stupid person. I like puzzles and mysteries in the books I read. I like to have to work for some of the content. That's part of what makes the reading experience so fun, involving, and rewarding. Gardens of the Moon, however, goes a step too far and doesn't let me know enough of what's happening among all the different factions vying for power and survival. Really, it's okay if the reader is told what someone hopes to accomplish; it gives the reader something to hope for, too. Then let the reader see how the characters' hopes are dashed. That creates reader sympathy and evokes big reactions in the human heart.

This also brings up the fact that halfway through the novel I felt little emotional attachment to any of these characters. The characters I liked best are in the book the least, up to this point. I thought, finally, I can get attached to someone, then they vanished again for umpteen pages. At the halfway point, I still haven't found them again. Where did they go? What are they doing? I don't know. I knew this novel and I were not going to work out, when at the middle climatic point where one of the main characters apparently dies, I felt no emotional reaction whatsoever. Eh? Shouldn't I be astonished and boohooing and pleasantly angry or something?

There's only so many times I can say to a book, "Okay, I'll give you another chance. It will surely all click into place today." But nobody's telling nobody nothing and I can't get involved when I don't know what I'm supposed to be hoping for. So when I picked up the book today to try to press on to the finish line, I literally groaned when I saw that after struggling along this hard, an equal amount of the book still awaited (?!?). Grimacing, I asked myself, "What is the point?" Shelve it. Swallow the disappointment. Move on.

If this were an official review, I would give Gardens of the Moon three magic wands. Dock one for massive, frustrating withholding. Dock a second for lack of character-reader involvement.

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So now I'm torn. In the queue is some self-pubbed material I need to read and review, along with what I'm sure is a great short by Milo James Fowler. Also, is a beat up copy of Kate Mosse's Labyrinth that a friend gave me, and The Help, which movie I loved.

What to choose first?
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