Reading recap: February

It’s time to look at what I’ve read the previous month. I finished four books, two of which were from my reading list and two of which weren’t. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a very satisfying selection of reading.

First up is Because of Miss Bridgerton by Julia Quinn, the first book in her new Rokesbys series, which wasn’t on my original reading list. She’s written numerous Regency romances about the Bridgerton family, and while I haven’t read them all, most of those that I’ve read have been delightful. Not this one. First of all, it was set in an earlier era, around 1770s. It’s a time totally different from her usual books, but you wouldn’t know it by reading this one. The historical setting is minimal and for the most part people behaved like they do in her other books. Waltz is mentioned even, even though it hadn’t been made fashionable in continental Europe yet, let alone in England. The story progresses like a steam engine, slow and steady, with no twists or turns, highs or lows. For a romance, this is bad. The love story is clear from the start and nothing emerges to test it. Much is made of the unladylike behaviour of the heroine, but in the end she doesn’t come to any grief because of it and she conforms like is expected of her. In a word, the book is boring. I won’t be reading the next book in the series.

Because of Miss Bridgerton by Julia Quinn

My second read of the month was Meridian Six by Jaye Wells that starts a series with the same name. It was another disappointment, especially since it held so much promise: a post-apocalyptic world ruled by vampires and a lone human woman trying to escape them. But it was too short and the story was too hasty. There wasn’t enough world-building to get a feel of things, and the characters felt too incomplete to get behind their motivations other than survival. The climax of the story felt poorly justified and it was difficult to get behind the action or care for the outcome. With a bit more meat around its bones, it might have been an interesting book, but as it is, I won’t be reading the next one.

Meridian Six by Jaye Wells

Another deviation from my list was Rise by Karina Bliss, the first book in her Rock Solid series, which I downloaded for free. It’s a contemporary romance set in the world of music business and I read it because it was recommended by Nalini Singh, whose Rock Kiss series I devoured last year. Bliss isn’t in the same league as a writer though. It wasn’t a bad book, but it wasn’t a very good romance. The characters were interesting, but they ended up working their issues separately and there was no room for the romance to grow. And I didn’t care for the third parties’ points of view that told entirely separate stories. The love story had a satisfying ending, but – again – I won’t be reading the next book in the series.

Rise by Karina Bliss

The fourth book I read last month was the best by far: Dawn Study by Maria V. Snyder, the third book in the Soulfinder series. It brings to the end her long-running series set in the same world – or rather, this is the third book in the third series, but they form a continuum. It was a great ending. The stakes were high enough throughout, and if the heroes got out of their scrapes a bit easily at times, the solutions were never self-evident. All the main characters got satisfying closures to their stories and nothing disappointed. The emotional epilogue worked especially well for me. My only complaint is that in a series this long, I’m bound to forget half the characters, especially the minor ones, and the author didn’t re-introduce them in any way. Therefore, at times I struggled to remember if the character was a friend or a foe and the emotional impact of some scenes was diminished because of it. But this issue aside, I’m not ready to leave this world and I hope the author starts a new series soon.

Dawn Study by Maria V. Snyder

That was my reading last month. I managed to start, but not finish, A Gathering of Shadows by V.A. Schwab, the second book in the Shades of Magic series. More about that in the next month’s recap.

Caught between series

I have currently two series that I write, Two-Natured London paranormal romance series and Tracy Hayes, P.I. detective series. The first has six books (or five and a half) and the latter has three books published – or will be by February 23rd. I like writing both, and while they’re not exactly best-sellers, both deserve my attention. But I’m only able to write one book at a time – I’ve tried to multitask and it didn’t work – so now that I’m about to start my next writing project, I’m caught up with a dilemma: which series should I dedicate my attention to next?

From purely a calendar point of view, I should write a Two-Natured London book next. The previous one was published a year ago, so it’s long overdue. The series currently has some uplift too, as Amazon finally made the first book free, so it would make sense to have a new book in the pipeline.

The problem is that I don’t have a clear idea what I want to write. I have four heroes to choose from that all deserve my attention, but I haven’t found their perfect matches yet. And the background story of the vampire warriors’ war against renegades has to up the ante, which means the next book might be longer than others, and might need a more traditional fantasy structure of multiple points of view instead of just those of two lovers. So it needs extra planning, which will slow me down, and doesn’t really suit my pantser temperament.

So maybe I should write the next Tracy Hayes book. I wrote the first three books back to back before publishing them. This had the benefit of keeping the characters fresh in my mind, and I had the chance to rewrite the first book to fit the developments in the third book, so there were no annoying inconsistencies between the books. Returning to that world while I still remember it well would make sense. I might even write the next three books back to back and publish them later. I have a clear idea where the overall story should go, which would make the project easier.

But I seem to be suffering from minor fatigue when it comes to that series. I’ve written the first chapter of the next book, and while I think it’s a fairly good chapter, I have no interest in continuing it. It could be the after effects of the flu I had last month, which drained me of all energy for weeks, but in case it’s not, should I trust my feelings and leave the book be for now?

So here I am, caught between two series, unable to write either of them. I could toss a coin and just soldier on, forcing the words out, trusting that they’ll come sooner or later. Or I could start writing both and pick the one that starts to flow naturally. The third option, not writing anything, isn’t really an option. I’m a writer, after all.

Until then, I have two series out there for you to read. And rest assured, they will both continue, sooner or later.

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The first two Tracy Hayes books are now out. You can get Apprentice P.I. here, and P.I. and Proud here. And the third book, P.I. to the Rescue is available for preorder here. And as always, you can find links to all my books on the side panel and on my webpage.

Reading recap: January

I read six books in January, all from my reading list. It was a mixture of fantasy and sci-fi, with fantasy winning, especially since I’m not entirely sure if Miéville’s book is fantasy or sci-fi. Here’s my recap.

Those Above by Daniel Polansky starts his new Empty Throne trilogy. The premise was interesting, a world shared by humans and those above, god-like creatures fairly devoid of all humanity. The first book introduced a cast of human characters that all have a reason to hate those above and one who doesn’t, and a plot that likely aims at starting a war against them. But the episodic chapters into each character’s lives failed to convince me. While things happened in them and to the characters, they all seemed mainly to be slaves of the plot. The characters didn’t change and none of them actively moved the plot, and while there were hints that the characters’ lives might be connected, nothing was made of it yet. Basically, I could’ve read the first chapters introducing each character and then jump to the end and still recognise them. I’m not entirely sure I’ll continue with the trilogy.

Those Above by Daniel Polansky

The Last Days of New Paris by China Miéville is an intriguing long novella about Paris in 1950 that’s been locked into WW2 by a surrealist bomb. The place is populated with human resistance, Nazis, and surrealist creatures that both sides try to harness to win the war. The main character encounters a spy from the outside, who’s arrived to Paris to stop Nazis from deploying their latest creature that would open the gates of hell. The plot, while fairly straightforward, is filled with such surrealist details that it was difficult to follow at times, but by the time I reached the end, everything made sense. The epilogue, however, which tries to claim it was all true felt redundant and in my opinion ruined the ending.

The Last Days of New Paris by China Miéville

City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennet starts his Divine Cities trilogy. The world is a mixture of early 19th century technology with cars and telegrams, and gods and magic, though gods have been officially obliterated and it’s forbidden to talk about them. At the essence of the story is a murder mystery, but the woman sent to solve it stumbles into a more intriguing mystery of hidden gods and people who still serve them. It was nice enough a book, but not the kind that would make me want to read the next one.

City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennet

A Promise of Fire by Amanda Bouchet is yet another trilogy opener. It’s a fantasy book set in a world that resembles ancient Greece with their gods. A war is building and at the heart of it is the main character, Catalia. However, in this first book the emphasis is on a love story between her and a warlord. It’s a bit problematic for the reader though, because it starts with Catalia being captured by the warlord, and the first half of the book is filled with cringe worthy instances where the love story more resembles a Stockholm syndrome. It doesn’t help that it’s told in first person narrative by a person with zero insight into herself. Luckily, the author steers clear of the worst traps of her premise. And it gets better towards the end. What really bothered me more was that Catalia was a Mary Sue and filled with powerful magic that allowed her to save the day again and again without repercussions. I think she would’ve been a more interesting character if she had to pay for the magic every time, so that she would know what she sacrifices when she rushes into using her magic. I’m not entirely sure I’ll read the next book.

A Promise of Fire by Amanda Bouchet

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel is a bittersweet story about a post-apocalyptic world where most of the population have been wiped away by the flu. What really made the story work was how it jumped back and forth in time to different points in the lives of the survivors and those who didn’t make it, with mentions to how long it was to the apocalypse. Since their lives were connected in the past, I was hoping for more connections in the future too, but that’s not how it went. The climax of the story, a confrontation with a prophet, was fairly anti-climatic, but the ending was hopeful despite the bleakness of the world.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Eleventh Grave in Moonlight by Darynda Jones is a book eleven in her Charley Davidson urban fantasy series. Series this long tend to stall, but there have been such large changes in Charley’s life that there’s no fear of that here. Like all Charley Davidson books, it was a detective story, but unlike in previous books, ghosts didn’t pay a role in solving it. Despite Charley’s new powers, she isn’t omnipotent and there are sacrifices she has to pay and accept, and she grows as a character as a consequence. Charley’s extended family and her new abilities cause her quite a lot of trouble as well. Almost all my favourite characters made an appearance, and Charley’s inner monologue was as crazy as ever. The sex scenes were hot as always, although at this point in the series the author has had to get really creative with them not to repeat herself. And the ending definitely ensures that I have to read the next book too.

Eleventh Grave in Moonlight by Darynda Jones

That’s all my reading this month. Have you read any of these books? What did you think?

Temporality and passage of time in serial fiction

I’ve been binge watching Star Trek: Enterprise lately. I didn’t see it when it aired in 2001-2005, but thanks to the streaming services, I’ve been able to indulge. For those who aren’t familiar with the series, it’s set a hundred years before the adventures of the original series with Captain Kirk and his fellows, and follows the crew of the first starship Enterprise. I’ve always been a Star Trek fan and I’ve liked it in all its incarnations, but Enterprise might be my favourite. There are many reasons for my preference, but what sets it apart from other series is how it allows the passage of time to show.

Scott Bacula as Captain Archer, and his crew.

Many episodic TV series, regardless of the genre, are curiously atemporal. Passage of time is only implied to, maybe with the compulsory Halloween, Christmas, and Valentine’s Day episodes, or if the series is set in the school world, with the start and end of the term; if it’s a long-running series, the students move from one grade to the next from season to season. Other than that, the episodes are fairly self-contained, and even if a story arc spans several episodes, its events seldom affect the following episodes or are barely referred to in them. There are almost never any references to events in the previous seasons.

Star Trek series aren’t an exception. Every episode opens with a star date, but unless you’re keeping tabs, it’s difficult to know how long has passed between the episodes. Each episode is a self-contained story and whatever happens in it – injuries or lessons learned – is forgotten by the next episode. And since they don’t even have the compulsory Christmas episodes, the passage of time disappears almost completely. The only indication of it is the child characters growing up, and even that is often downplayed. Children may grow, but adults don’t seem to age, even if the actors do. The viewer is given windows to the life on a spaceship or station, but the overall illusion is that those places only come to life when the viewer is there. Relationships spring to life only when there is audience, with the curious notion that nothing happens to it when no one is watching.

Enterprise is different. From the first episode on, the passage of time is evident. Star dates haven’t been invented yet, and it’s easier to keep tabs on the chronology when it’s expressed in days, months and years. The passage of time is part of the narrative. If a character injures him or herself in one episode, they’re not miraculously cured by the next, or at least some mention of it is made in later episodes. If the Enterprise has a technical malfunction, it may continue in the next episode too regardless of the story arc. Events of the first season affect, and are returned to, the following seasons, and they play crucial role throughout the series. Relationships come to life, grow and die their natural courses throughout the series. All of this creates an illusion of lives lived even when the viewer isn’t there to witness it.

The first Enterprise

Time is actually the driving force of the narrative. From the first episode on, references are made to a Temporal Cold War that the agents from the future wage in the past. Enterprise and its crew are forced to be a part of this war, with some interesting story arcs. The entire season three is one continuous story about the time war. And when disturbances in time take place, entire timelines change. All of this forces the narrative to pay attention to the chronology in the lives of the characters too. The end result is an enjoyable series with characters that the viewer can grow up with and get attached to.

(As a disclaimer, I haven’t seen the last episode yet, which I’ve been given to understand is appalling. I hope it won’t ruin my experience of the entire series.)

There has been a boom in recent years of series with continuing story lines, which to me indicates that the viewers want that kind of experience, but episodic series are still the stable of any network. Why else would we have three different versions of CSI or NCIS, to mention just two. Police procedural and crime series are often those most marked by their opaque passage of time. The case and solving it is what matters. Within an individual episode, time can be crucial – and often is – but between episodes, it’s only referred to in passing. When it comes to TV entertainment, it kind of works. I seldom miss the references to time, and only notice its absence when treated to a different kind of experience, like with the Enterprise.

I haven't followed this, but it too has Scott Bacula in it.

Similar tendency to atemporality can be seen in books also, especially in serialised genre fiction. Most notable this is in crime fiction and for the same reason than on TV too: the case matters, not the lives outside it. Once the case is closed, it’s not returned to, and it has no effect on the events in the subsequent books.

But what works well for TV series, doesn’t necessarily work for books. A book is a commitment; we devote time and attention to a book, and the longer the series, the more we want in return for our commitment. If nothing ever changes in the lives of the characters, if nothing changes the characters, we get disappointed. If the author hints of developments in the characters’ personal lives and then doesn’t deliver, we feel let down. The worst are the books where exciting changes take place, only to be forgotten in the next book. My current pet peeve is Stephanie Plum series, which I continue to read in the hopes that it reaches some sort of conclusion despite the evidence to contrary.

There is, of course, a good reason to write a series that is set a bit outside of time. One is the longevity of the series. If the main characters never grow old, the series can continue forever. Also, it’s easier for new readers to pick up a book in the middle of the series and start reading without the worry of missing out on something important. Both help with the popularity of the series.

Harry Dresden

Nevertheless, my personal favourites are series that manage to combine the case by case stories with a continuous plot or developments in the main characters’ lives. I think the best examples come from urban fantasy. UF series often have a plot that spans the entire length of the series with a case-based plot for each individual book. My all-time favourite is, of course, Harry Dresden series that has managed to progress rather far from where it began in the course of fifteen books (though I haven’t given up hope that there will be more).

I’ve tried to keep the passage of time in mind in my own writing too. My Two-Natured London series has an underlying – and slow-moving – plot even though each book has a self-contained love story. And my new series, Tracy Hayes, P.I., will put an equal emphasis on Tracy’s private life and her cases. I want my character to grow as the series progress and be a different person by the time it ends. It also means that I have to write with the end in mind. It limits the span of the series, but I think that’s a good thing. It’ll keep things fresh.

What do you think? Do you prefer your series atemporal or set in time?

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In news: Tracy Hayes 2, P.I. and Proud is now out. You can find it here. And the first book in the Two-Natured London series if finally free on Amazon too, having been free for years on other platforms. You can download it here.

Cover design for self-publishers: series

I’ve been making my own book covers ever since I started publishing in 2012, partly because I can’t afford professionally designed covers and partly because I really enjoy making them. My first covers weren’t very good, but I’ve made an effort to learn and improve my skills. I’ve learned a lot about techniques, visual effects, colours and fonts. One thing I’ve learned is that individual covers are different to make than the covers of series. You have to take into consideration the cover visuals from the first book on to make the readers immediately see that the books belong together. Not always easy for amateur designers, however enthusiastic. So what to do?

1. Use of fonts

The simplest solution is to use the same fonts on every cover; author name with one kind of font, the title with another, and so on. Even if you’re not writing a series, you can opt to use the same font for your name in all your books as a sort of a calling card. If possible, you can also use the same layout for all the covers – place the texts in the same places on all covers – to create a continuous look.

2. Use of colours

Another good way to tie the covers together is to use one or two signature colours on each cover. That can include the fonts or there can be a visual element on each cover that repeats a certain colour. Most stock photo sites have an option to search for a colour, but if this doesn’t yield results, you can try your design skills by adding the colour yourself. The simplest way is to add a transparent colour layer over the stock photo. (You need software that uses layers for that. GIMP is free and fairly easy to use.) Or, you can use the same photo and change the colour layer for a new look – the opposite of a signature colour.

And of course, you can use the combination of colours and fonts to create a uniform look for your series.

Same photo with a different colour, and same fonts and layout.

3. Themes

It’s not always easy to find photos that look reasonably similar to create a uniform look. So choose a theme that repeats throughout the series. Maybe each book can have a photo of a bare-chested man, if you’re writing that kind of series. Those are easy enough to find, even if you haven’t planned the theme ahead. The simpler the theme, the easier it is to repeat cover after a cover. Add to that the fonts and/or signature colour, and you can have a uniform look for the covers.

With my Two-Natured London series, I decided that each book should have a moon and a man – with a shirt on. Since they don’t usually occur in the same photo, this has required quite a lot of work on both finding suitable backgrounds and men, and then fitting them together. I also have the same fonts and layout on each cover.

Covers for Two-Natured London series.

4. Photo series

Most stock photo sites have photo series with either the same model or a theme, or both. If you know you’re going to write a series, you can check these photo series already before you design the first cover. Downside is that it’s not as easy to find photos that exactly match your series, but you can occasionally get lucky.

An example of a photo series: same girl in different settings. Create your own look.

5. Planning ahead

The easiest way to have a uniform look for your series is to plan the covers ahead even before publishing the first book. Or if you’ve already published one or two books, you can redesign the covers to match the rest. Choose one or two elements that you repeat a book after a book and elements that change so that the reader knows with a glance that it’s a different book in the same series.

For my new series, Tracy Hayes, P.I., I wanted to repeat an idea I saw in a poster: a silhouette of a human and a city skyline on a single colour background. Since the books are set in Brooklyn, I naturally wanted a Brooklyn skyline, which took some searching to find. The silhouette of a woman was easier to find, but selecting the one that fit the genre the best took some time. From the start, I decided to change the background colour with each book, as well as the font colours to fit the background, though the fonts remain the same. The girl changes a little too. Each book also has one element that reflects the contents. The first one has a little dog, the second an outline of a body.

I only have two covers ready, but already I can tell that designing the rest is much easier than if I had to start from the scratch with each of them. What do you think?

Tracy Hayes, Apprentice P.I.

Tracy Hayes, P.I. and Proud

The first book, Tracy Hayes, Apprentice P.I. is already published and you can find it here. The second book, Tracy Hayes, P.I. and Proud, will come out in January 26th. Stay tuned.

Reading resolutions (and resolute reading)

It’s a new year and time for a new reading challenge. I’ve participated in the challenge on Goodreads for four years in a row now, and each year I’ve added to the number of books I’ve read. Last year I read sixty books, though I’d originally pledged to read fifty-five. To be on the safe side, I kept it to fifty-five this year too. I usually pick my reading based on how I feel, and it seems I’ve felt like reading quite a lot of urban fantasy and fantasy last year. You can check out here what I read last year.

This year, I decided to be more organised about my reading. So I made a list. I never make them, or if I do I don’t follow them, but a list of books to read has to be easy to stick to. Especially since I didn’t make any difficult promises, like reading classics in their original language.

My list has fifty-six books at the moment, so there’s some room for changes.  And it seems I’ll be reading a lot of urban fantasy (27) and fantasy (22) this year too, and quite a lot of it from authors I’ve read before. There are measly four sci-fi books and three crime books on my list. And oddest of all, I haven’t added a single romance, whether historical or contemporary. But there’s some wiggling room, so maybe I’ll re-read my favourite Georgette Heyer books.

I can’t help my bias – or favouritism. There are really good books coming out this year from my favourite authors, like the last book in Robin Hobb’s Fitz and Fool trilogy, Assassin’s Fate (May 5th), the latest Cassie Palmer book, Ride the Storm (August 1st) (the previous book came out ages ago), The Chosen, a new Black Dagger Brotherhood book (April 4th), and many more.

I did try to liven it up. I added a bunch of new authors, both traditionally and self-published, based on Amazon recommendations. That’s how the list got books like Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennet, and Demon Moon by Brad Magnarella.

There are also a couple of books I’ve meant to read, but haven’t had time, like Tom Pollock’s Our Lady of the Streets, which ends the excellent Skyscraper Throne trilogy. It came out ages ago and has been sitting on my shelf ever since. Also a couple of second and third books in series I’ve started but haven’t been so excited about that I’d immediately read them all, like Max Gladstone’s Two Serpents Rise, the second book in his Craft Sequence series.

All in all, I’m happy with my list. I’ll add it here in full, so you can check it up for your favourites. Recommendations are always welcome. If you like to know how I’m doing with it, my Goodreads Reading Challenge is here.

In other news, Tracy Hayes, Apprentice P.I., the first book in my new funny and fast-paced detective series, is out. You can find it on Amazon, iTunes and B&N, among others. Take a look.

Tracy Hayes, Apprentice P.I. by Susanna Shore

My Reading List for 2017

UF

Ben Aaronovitch: The Hanging Tree (Peter Grant 6)

Patricia Briggs: Dead Heat (Alpha & Omega)

                     Fire Touched (Mercy Thompson)

                     Silence Fallen (Mercy Thompson) (March 7)

Gail Carriger: Romancing the Inventor

                  Romancing the Werewolf

Karen Chance: Dragon’s Claw (Dorina Barabas novella)

                    Lover’s Knot (Dorina Barabas novella)

                    Ride the Storm (Cassie Palmer) (August 1)

Darynda Jones: Eleventh Grave in the Moonlight (Charley Davidson) (January 24)

                     For I have Sinned (Charley Davidson novella)

Laurell K. Hamilton: Crimson Death

Benedict Jacka: Taken (Alex Verus 3)

                      Chosen (Alex Verus 4)

Stacia Kane: Made for Sin

Katie MacAlister: Dragon Unbound

Brad Magnarella: Demon Moon (Prof Croft Book 1)

Karen Marie Moning: Feverborn

                            Feversong (January 17)

Tom Pollock: Our Lady of the Streets (The Skyscraper Throne 3)

Diana Rowland: Vengeance of the Demon (Karen Gillian 7)

                      Legacy of the Demon (Karen Gillian 8)

                      White Trash Zombie Gone Wild

                      White Trash Zombie Unchained (June 6)

Nalini Singh: Silver Silence (Psy-Changeling Trinity) (June 15)

J.R. Ward: The Chosen (Black Dagger Brotherhood) (April 4)

Jaye Wells: Meridian Six

Fantasy 

Rachel Aaron: No Good Dragon Goes Unpunished (Heartstrikers 3)

C.J. Archer: The Watchmaker’s Daughter (Glass and Steele Book 1)

Victoria Aveyard: King’s Cage (Red Queen 3) (February 9)

Leigh Bardugo: Six of Crows

Robert Jackson Bennet: City of Stairs

Aliette de Bodard: The House of Binding Thorns (A Dominion of the Fallen 2) (April 6)

                         In Morningstar’s Shadow: Dominion of the Fallen Stories

Amanda Bouchet: A Promise of Fire

Trudi Canavan: Successor’s Promise (Millennium’s Rule 3) (September 19)

Genevieve Cogman: The Burning Page (The Invisible Library 3)

Paul Durham: Fork-Tongue Charmers (The Luck Uglies 2)

Max Gladstone: Two Serpents Rise (Craft Sequence 2)

                      Full Fathom Five (Craft Sequence 3)

Robin Hobb: Assassin’s Fate (Fitz and the Fool Trilogy 3) (May 9)

Bec McMaster: Mission: Improper (London Steampunk: The Blue Blood Conspiracy Book 1)

China Mièville: Last Days of New Paris

Daniel Polansky: Those Above (The Empty Throne 1)

                      Those Below (The Empty Throne 2)

V.A. Schwab: A Gathering of Shadows

                   A Conjuring of Light (February 21)

Maria Snyder: Dawn Study (January 31)

                   Scent of Magic (Healer Book 2)

                   Taste of Darkness (Healer Book 3)

Sci-fi

M. R. Carey: The Girl with All the Gifts

Becky Chambers: The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet

Kameron Hurley: Stars are a Legion

Emily St. John Mandel: Station Eleven

Crime

Janet Evanovich: Curious Minds

                        The Scam

                        Turbo Twenty-three