Day One
Maureen Johnson is my new hero. I will likely stalk her to the end of my days. Her keynote at the start of the Blogger Conference at BEA14 was genius. She pretends to be a laid back, rambly sort of girl (the kind of girl I often find when I look in the mirror) but she's actually an insightful, deep-thoughts, whip-smart kind of author and speaker.
Her big take away? Book bloggers challenge the lazy status quo. For every broad, lowest common denominator media story designed to panic (TEENS DON'T READ! FIFTY SHADES OF GRAY IS BAD WRITING!) there needs to be (and there are) bloggers who challenge generalization. Bloggers need to shine a light on book love - because there is so much to love. Instead of click-bait rage.
She mentioned a recent article in the Atlantic that was just such click bait. (And of course, I clicked it.) But her point was that this kind of article is not engendering discussion (good) it's just a didactic rant (bad) and it's making readers sound stupid. I haven't finished reading the article, but I imagine it not only seeks to make readers feel stupid, but also seeks to make other people feel smug about not reading.
Lots of great food for thought! I've already had three cups of coffee!! If you see me buzzing around confusedly at BEA, please point me toward a bathroom/food table.
This is a review of the audiobook for IN THE AFTER by Demitria Lunetta. First I'll review the book itself, then the 'audiobookness' of the book. THEN I'll give away a SIGNED copy of IN THE AFTER! BOOK Blurb from Audible:
Amy is watching TV when the world is attacked by Them. Most of the population is overtaken, but Amy manages to survive - and even rescue "Baby" - a toddler she finds in an abandoned supermarket.
Then, after years of hiding, they are miraculously rescued and taken to New Hope, a colony of survivors living in a former government research compound. While at first the colony seems like a dream, with plenty of food, safety, and shelter, New Hope slowly reveals that it is far from ideal. And Amy soon realizes that unless things change, she'll lose Baby - and much more.
Oh man, I loved this book. Maybe more so because I didn't think I would. I had shied away from it because I *thought* it was like a lot of other dystopian books that I've read lately (to remain nameless) all action no depth. But Amy is a deep character. She is not just reacting to situations - attacks by flesh eating 'them', having to become completely silent so as to not attract 'their' attention. She's got a rich internal life, and moral struggle. Should she leave Baby behind? Should she just save herself? When she reflects on what her life was like 'in the before' she realizes that the world she used to live in is gone forever.
Or is it? When she's rescued and brought to New Hope - a colony that tries very hard to replicate life 'before' - Amy is skeptical. She's an intriguingly prickly character with conflicting motivations and feelings. This makes her strong and real - she's no cardboard cut out heroine.
The scenes I love best are the ones between Amy and Baby. Their bond is amazing and I love the way Lunetta conveys so much emotion between the girls as they live in a silent world - using sign language, walking on bare feet, always hyper vigilant against the slightest sound that could bring 'their' attack.
The twists and turns in IN THE AFTER are unexpected and when they come, and you cast back in your mind to see if there were any hints that came before, you realize they were there, you just missed them. I didn't know how Amy would survive, not just physically but emotionally and the end made me impatient for more.
The good news is 'more' is coming. IN THE END the sequel to IN THE AFTER comes out June 24th. I can't wait.
AUDIO
I listen to a lot of audiobooks - it's how I get to read as many books as I have to/need to. If I had to wait to have some quiet, alone time in my household of crazy, I'd still be waiting. Audiobooks allow me to read while I'm cutting the lawn, driving, running and ignoring my kids caring for my children.
But the nature of audiobooks is such that the narrator becomes nearly as important as the book itself. A very good narrator is practically invisible, a voice in your head that stands in for you. A bad narrator - or even one that just rubs you the wrong way - can kill your book-enjoying buzz. I could not finish listening to FLORA & ULYSSES by Kate DiCamillo because the narrator got on my very last nerve. Hopefully, I'll be able to pick up the paper version soon and have a better experience.
The narrator for IN THE AFTER is Julia Whelan and she does not disappoint. She captures the tone and character of Amy perfectly, managing to convey the girl's fierceness and vulnerability at the same time. She also does a very good, seamless job of speaking in a slightly different voice when speaking another character's dialogue. Some narrators do this with a very heavy hand. They try to put on a 'voice' or accent so you know that the person speaking is someone other than the main character (especially in a book that is first person like this one.) I think Julia Whelan does this effectively but subtly. I never felt taken out of the story by the narration.
GIVEAWAY! This is the lovely swag I have for you! A signed copy of IN THE AFTER along with a bookmark and sticker. All you have to do is leave a comment below and, if you'd be so kind, follow me on twitter if you don't already (@magpiewrites)
I'll select a winner at random on Monday June 2nd. Good luck!
I'm thrilled to host Sharon Bayliss, author of DESTRUCTION, on my blog today. I gave DESTRUCTION five stars (see review here) because I found it to be such an original, intriguing take on magic and wizards in the world. Particularly magic and religion, which is often ignored or sidestepped in books about magic. In real life, people who believe in magic *often* also believe in some kind of religion - they're not mutually exclusive.
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In my recent release, Destruction, realism was critical. I wanted to show wizards as they would be in the real world. So, a family of wizards living in Houston, Texas in present day are going to have some obvious questions like, "Am I going to get an owl from Hogwarts?" and since the family was raised Christian, they're going to have some more serious questions too like, "Do wizards get into Heaven?"
Here is an excerpt from the book:
While glaring at his sister, he tugged a chain out from under his shirt and pulled it over his head. A heavy silver object clattered onto the counter. A Christian cross.
David didn’t know if this meant Xavier was secretly a wizard or secretly a Christian, or which one of those things seemed more unbelievable.
“Are you a Christian?” David asked him.
“No,” Xavier said neutrally. He grabbed the cross again, put it back around his neck, then tucked it into his shirt.
“Thank you for showing me,” David said to Xavier, who ignored him.
“Our mom gave it to him to use as his object. It’s more powerful as an object than my stone, but I wanted something of my own to build from scratch. The cross comes with built-in magic. Millions of people across the world and across time have used it as their talisman. People sing to it. Speak to it. Put it over the bodies of their dead. It all adds up. But you still have to make it your own, put your own magic in it, or it’s still just an object.” She swished a piece of waffle around her plate with her fork. “You have these in your house,” she said, still looking at her plate.
“Yes,” he said. “We’re Christian.” He didn’t know if she expected any more explanation.
“I thought you might understand then, if you saw his,” she added.
“I do,” he said, even though he wasn’t entirely sure.
Another excerpt:
“I thought you were a Christian,” Emmy said to Amanda. “Have you been pretending all these years? Why even take us to church?”
“What you are is different from what you believe. We can believe whatever we choose to.”
“Do you believe in God?”
“Yes.”
“Do you believe in the Devil?”
“Yes.”
“Can wizards get into Heaven?”
“They have the same chance as everyone else.”
“But you don’t know for sure.”
“Emmy, no one knows for sure. Not about any of this.”
“We know what’s in the Bible. And there are no wizards in it.”
“Are you sure?”
Emmy knitted her brows together. “No,” she said firmly.
And another (I blacked out a spoiler):
“Who were you talking to? Grandma?”
“Actually, it was Lydia Armstrong, you know, from church. She’s the one who always wears those gaudy pins on her blouse.”
“Why were you talking to her in the middle of the night?”
“She’s in my prayer circle.”
“You mean, they’re praying… for us? For this situation?”
Mom smiled a little. “They don’t know all the details. Just that Emmy is missing. As nice as it is to think I can cast a spell and protect my family on my own… I feel safer knowing I’ve consulted an expert.”
“You mean God?”
“Yes, I mean God.”
---
Amanda, the mother in the book, was taught by her parents that miracles that don't come from God are from the Devil. She believes that the only way to be a good and godly person and a wizard, is to deny her magic. So, even as it becomes apparent that denying magic won't be possible, or a good idea, she struggles against it. There seems to be no place in the world for a Christian wizard, but as the story progresses Amanda tries her best to fit that role and stay true to her faith and to her true self, as you see a little bit in the last excerpt.
I'm very proud that I have fans from all varieties of religious and spiritual beliefs, including Mormons, Catholics, Protestants, pagans, agnostics, and atheists. I don't intend for the story to have any specific religious message, but understanding oneself in relation to God (or a lack thereof) is an important theme, and one that I think most people can identify with.
Here is more about Destruction:
Introducing a new dark wizard family drama, Destruction by Sharon Bayliss, Book One in The December People Series.
David Vandergraff wants to be a good man. He goes to church every Sunday, keeps his lawn trim and green, and loves his wife and kids more than anything. Unfortunately, being a dark wizard isn't a choice.
Eleven years ago, David's secret second family went missing. When his two lost children are finally found, he learns they suffered years of unthinkable abuse. Ready to make things right, David brings the kids home even though it could mean losing the wife he can’t imagine living without.
Keeping his life together becomes harder when the new children claim to be dark wizards. David believes they use this fantasy to cope with their trauma. Until, David's wife admits a secret of her own—she is a dark wizard too, as is David, and all of their children.
Now, David must parent two hurting children from a dark world he doesn’t understand and keep his family from falling apart. All while dealing with the realization that everyone he loves, including himself, may be evil.
The Author
Sharon Bayliss is the author of The December People Series and The Charge. When she’s not writing, she enjoys living happily-ever-after with her husband and two young sons. She can be found eating Tex-Mex on patios, wearing flip-flops, and playing in the mud (which she calls gardening). She only practices magic in emergencies.
I've never been to Book Expo America (May 28 - May 30) and am really looking forward to it. I know there's some controversy about BookCon on May 31st, which is a reader-facing con (to make it really overly simplistic it boils down to: We Need Diverse Books and get Grumpy Cat instead. I actually think Book Con is trying to address this with a panel on Dystopian featuring Veronica Roth, Marie Lu, Danielle Page and Alaya Dawn Johnson. We shall see.)
I'm going on Wednesday for the Book Blogger conference and I'll be there Friday and Saturday.
So, if you've been to BEA before - what should I know? What should I definitely do and definitely, under pain of humiliation, NOT DO?
If you're going to BEA this year, let me know if comments so we can get together - I'd love to meet.
Finally, what are you excited about?
Here's a short list of what I'm pumped about:
Maureen Johnson's Keynote on Wednesday
Tiger Beat with Libba Bray (please do a Prince cover, PLEASE!)
Bob Shea & Lane Smith autographing on Friday
The Graphic Novel Today panel on Saturday
And the Macmillan booth because I *hear* (the books speak to me, you know) it will be EPIC.
Given the choice between reading 'children's' books (picture/YA/MG) or 'adult' books, I'll pick the children's book almost every time. I like children's fiction because it's raw and full of wonder and nothing is taken for granted–regardless of the genre. Children's fiction is filled with magic of every kind. I'm sure there are books for adults that are full of wonder, that do have magic, but it's a lot less common in my experience.
So I was wonderfully surprised by Sharon Bayliss' DESTRUCTION. It's for grown ups–it's about grown up things, family and mortgages and adultery and abuse. But it's also about magic.
David Vandergraff wants to be a good man. He goes to church every Sunday, keeps his lawn trim and green, and loves his wife and kids more than anything. Unfortunately, being a dark wizard isn't a choice.
Eleven years ago, David's secret second family went missing. When his two lost children are finally found, he learns they suffered years of unthinkable abuse. Ready to make things right, David brings the kids home even though it could mean losing the wife he can’t imagine living without.
Keeping his life together becomes harder when the new children claim to be dark wizards. David believes they use this fantasy to cope with their trauma. Until, David's wife admits a secret of her own—she is a dark wizard too, as is David, and all of their children.
Now, David must parent two hurting children from a dark world he doesn’t understand and keep his family from falling apart. All while dealing with the realization that everyone he loves, including himself, may be evil.
What's fascinating about this book is how seamlessly it integrates magic into the real world. No dart behind the Leaky Cauldron is necessary to find magic. It's in David's house, intwined in his family's DNA. There's no on/off switch. The Vandergraff's live steeped in it, whether they know it or not.
The depiction of family life–and the complicated additions to that family–are completely engaging. Sharon does a stellar job of getting us to care for eight distinct family members of wizards, imbuing them with motivation, soul and mile-wide-streaks of bad choices that make the wizards very human. That's another thing I loved about these characters - especially a flawed character like David. No one wears the white hat. That's what makes this book so intriguing.
DESTRUCTION challenged me. It was unpredictable and a hell of a ride. Nothing came easy for these characters and the resolution was one that I didn't see coming but, when it came, made perfect sense.
DESTRUCTION is the first book of the DECEMBER PEOPLE SERIES.
Sharon Bayliss is the author of The December People Series and The Charge. When she’s not writing, she enjoys living happily-ever-after with her husband and two young sons. She can be found eating Tex-Mex on patios, wearing flip-flops, and playing in the mud (which she calls gardening). She only practices magic in emergencies.
There’s was only one bad thing about the 2014 YA FEST in Easton
PA.
There were so many people (yay!) that it was a
crush. Getting to any author's table to chat and sign was difficult until I learned the secret of walking
behind the book stacks to get to the far side where the books were being sold.
I spent a kajillion dollars on books. Then, because I am a sick, sick
individual, I spent MORE money at the library’s used book sale. My reasoning? Why not build a shelter out of books for the coming Fill-In-The-Blank apocalypse?
Speaking of the apocalypse, I had the amazing fortune of
meeting Demitria Lunetta.
Her post-apocalyptic book IN THE AFTER is stunning. I told
her that I’d shied away from the book initially because I’d been burned by
dystopians and post-apocalyptics before – books that were all action, no depth.
IN THE AFTER is not at all like that. While being well paced and full of
action, there are a lot of questions raised – morality, responsibility and how, in the ruined world of the after, the ideas of right and wrong are highly subjective. It
reminded me of THE REAPERS ARE THE ANGELS by Alden Bell and ASHES by Ilsa Bick. (Those
are about zombies, and there are no zombies in IN THE AFTER. But the sequel, IN THE END comes out in June and I just don’t know what the heck
could happen next. IT'S THAT GOOD.) I'll be doing a full review of IN THE AFTER audiobook soon but just know it's an excellent read.
Demitria Lunetta and me. (Why do I look like a demented school marm? Not sure...)
I got to see and meet lots of interesting authors – both
published and unpublished. I got to talk to kids and teens and ask them what
they were reading, what they liked. It was wonderful to see their enthusiasm.
This was a gorgeous sunny Saturday. And they were in the library talking to
authors, collectingautographs and
chatting about books. Wish this event could happen every weekend. But then I
would absolutely need that shelter of books as my house would be repossessed.
#insufficientfunds.
Next week I’ll be talking about another YA FEST author,
Aaron Starmer who I babbled to unceasingly before remembering to let him get back to his signing
table. His book THE ONLY ONES has twisted my mind forever. In the best possible
way. I'm reading his new book THE RIVERMAN now.
