Chimera Cover

I'm Published!

My book, Chimera, is now available through Amazon. The process was pretty easy. They even have book cover art available...not a lot of choices, but perfectly fine. I'm excited!!!
Here's the link: http://www.amazon.com/Chimera-ebook/dp/B00FCK931U/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1379858215&sr=1-1&keywords=kelly+madden
Here's the blurb:
In scientific terms a chimera occurs when one fetus absorbs its twin, resulting in fused DNA. In mythology a chimera is a monster. Katherine Tate is certainly the first, perhaps the second. Kath lives and speaks with her unborn sister, as the twin is alive and well inside of her. And her dual nature is expressed in another way; Kath is a child of the west and the east. A Malaysian girl brought up in an American farming community, Kath is unaware that Kali, Hindu goddess of death and creation, is waiting in the land of her birth. Follow Kath through the teaming streets of Kuala Lumpur and the surrounding jungles as she discovers self-enlightenment, love, and her forgotten past.

A Major Decision

I entered the writer's world about ten years ago. At that time electronic publishing and submitting had newly emerged. A million (or so it seemed) publishers burst on the scene, clearly distinguishing themselves from self publication, AKA, "vanity presses." The idea being that anyone could get published, and that the talented couldn't "make it" doing it. There were some exceptions (like the young man who self published Aragon), but the general feeling remained..." good" writers just didn't self publish. So I never did it, opting for the electronic choice.
For me electronic publishers were fabulous. As anyone knows who has submitted shorts and novels, there are only a few big name publishers that will allow submission without an agent, and a good one is hard to get if you are unknown. So I published several novels with various small to medium sized electronic publishers. These experiences were great for the most part. I made some money, but not much.
More important was what I learned. I have a wonderful sister who edits beautifully, but I truly believe every author needs other external feedback that is not a friend or family member. I got that in spades. I now tailor my writing to current venue standards. I know my personal writer's overused words and punctuation mistakes. I understand how publishing works. So many other things. Over the last ten years the electronic market has boomed and evolved. There are even more of them, and they now want a marketing plan when you submit a book. This is good and I do have one.
Then I discovered something. If you self publish on Amazon you can do the same marketing, more or less, that a small to medium house does, AND Amazon pays more royalties. So...I'm going to try it. With new books I will still submit to the few large publishing houses that will let me. I will also continue to submit shorts to "real" publishers so I can continue to receive external feedback.
Would I suggest it to everyone? Not to someone just starting out. There is real value in having external editors edit your work. I'm grateful for that, and also that I never had to pay for all of that advice. But...if you've already been there, done that, check out Amazon. My husband and I are both going to do it. We'll keep you posted...

Tangled Up In Blue

One of my favorite books of all time are the twin volumes the Snow Queen and The Summer Queen by Joan Vinge. She is not as well known as some authors writing the genre, but she should be, in my opinion. Her writing style combines the fantasy of Ray Bradbury with tight sci-fi sensibilities, and the intrigue of the best noir mystery authors. There is nothing else like it.


But there are only two! Or so I thought. I recently discovered another book, Tangled Up In Blue, which focuses on a minor, yet powerful, character in the first two This work isn't as mysterious as those, because this protagonist is not a native. Nonetheless, it's exciting and further develops the alien world...through an off worlder's eyes. I loved it.

There's one more. When it comes out on Kindle I will be buying it.

New Published Story!

My story, Skin and Bones, is in the current issue of The Lorelei Signal.

http://www.loreleisignal.com/SkinandBones.html

Artwork by Lee Kuruganti. I like the image a lot, although my protagonist is supposed to have blond hair. Artistic license. :-)

Peony

I read The Big Wave by Pearl S. Buck when I was in my twenties. After completion I swore never to read another of her books; it was just too crushingly sad. I recognized what a wonderful writer she was and the book did make me ponder many things, but crying while reading wasn't on the menu...especially in my twenties. :-)

My mom loves Pearl Buck and recently gave me a book she had just finished by said author, Peony. Here's the thing about my mom: she likes me to like her stuff. I guess to some extent we all enjoy that...even me. It's not a requirement or expectation, nor am I sad if someone doesn't like something I love, but it's nice when they do. So back to my mom. She spent a lot of time over the years listening to me ramble on about ideas, topics, literature, music, clothes, etcetera ad naseum, probably most of which she didn't care about except for the fact that her daughter did. Plus I am one of three offspring, and she has grandkids. With all of that giving on her part, I figure I can watch/read most of what she suggests, and usually I do enjoy it.

Except Pearl Buck. But, I figured at this point in my life an angsy book wouldn't be so bad. And, if after a chapter I hated it I would quit. Well. The first paragraph had me hooked. The setting is China 200 years ago, the main character is a bondsmaid named Peony, "less than a daughter, more than a servant." You know from the very beginning what is going to happen in an overarching sense...she's going to fall in love with the son of her master. You also know it's gonna be sad. And it was, although there are incandescent moments of joy. Regardless, there are so many things so enjoy about Buck's writing...the gorgeous descriptions, historical learning (I never knew there were Jewish settlers in China), the subtle way she communicates through delicate character conversations, and the challenges she presents to her readers. She never preaches, in fact, I'm not sure what her beliefs are by her books, but she lays out many life philosophies and by doing so examines the pros and cons of each.

When I finished the last paragraph of Peony I teared up and threw down the book with a hearty %*&^%$!!! Never AGAIN, I yelled, will I read ANYTHING by BUCK!!! I was in a funk all day. But the next day, and the day after, the sadness ebbed and the fullness of what that book meant flooded in. Is life inherently sad or happy? What are the consequences of accepting one or the other? Is assimilation good or bad...or neither? Is thinking yourself special helpful or dangerous? How about all or nothing thinking? Advantages? Disadvantages? I could go on and on.

Pearl Buck never answers these questions, but she invites her reader to. Will I read another book of hers? Probably. But not for awhile.

More Classic Stuff

Just finished an awesome set of books by Andre Norton. The set included: Storm Over Warlock, Star Born, Star Hunter, Plague Ship, Voodoo Planet, The Gift of the Asti, and The People of the Crater. I had read the Solar Queen books when I was young, but found I enjoyed them just as much today as I did way back then. The others I hadn't read...or at least, I don't remember if I did. :-)

Some of the science is dated of course, and old fashioned names like "blasters" abound, but considering some of these stories are fifty years old they read amazingly well. There is also something quite nostalgic about a story such as The People of the Crater, in which a pilot discovers an alien civilization living beneath the polar ice cap. Back then the earth still held so many secrets that a book like this would not have been considered silly when published. I don't for a minute wish for those days to return, but it must have been exciting to dream about mysterious far away places on our own planet...mysterious enough to hold an entire civilization underneath our feet.

I Don't Care

Remember that old song, I Don't Care? I like the lyrics because they paint a pretty good description of me.


I had an almost argument with a friend the other day; I say almost, because when I realized she didn't/wouldn't believe that in most cases I don't care what others think, I changed the subject. It wasn't worth getting upset over because...I didn't care if she believed me or not. :-)

I have a small group of people who I hold dear what they think of my behaviors and actions...to a point. Another example, if my mom says she hates my new tattoo I don't care. Would I rather she like it? I guess... it's a tattoo, not a kid. Would a compliment have been nice? Yeah...who doesn't like those? But her liking it or not in the end doesn't matter.

Same with people liking me in general. It's nicer if people I meet like me, especially when it's, say, in-laws. It's certainly easier. But if they don't, it's not a requirement. How could I make them anyway? Not everyone is going to.

I've experienced this phenomenon in other areas besides the interpersonal, such as dancing. There are a million forms of dance, each with its own rules and criteria of what is deemed "good." The ballroom community, for example, believes they have the ultimate criteria down pat. I don't agree. So if a ballroom person doesn't like the way I dance... I don't care.

So what does this have to do with writing? You know I'm going to tie it in somehow. :-) I've had people ask me if I "care" what publishers think of my work. That depends on what is meant by "care." Do I care if they want to buy it? Yes! It's a huge bummer if a desired publisher rejects one of my manuscripts. But do I care if they like it? No. Here's why. At this point I know I can write, so it doesn't bother me if a particular publisher thinks I can't, and some rejections do imply that. Are compliments nice? Very. But I'd rather have a "mean" we want your book but it needs a lot of work rather than a "nice" we love your book but we can't use it.

Every publisher has its own set of criteria of what is good. If you want to be published you have to conform to each unique set of specifications, and by that definition writers have to "care." But in my opinion, caring if they like it or not is too subjective to base one's ego on.

Same goes with people :-)

I'm happy-go-lucky,
they say that I'm plucky.
Content and carefree.
They say I'm crazy, got no sense,
but I don't care.
They may or may not mean offense,
but I don't care.
You see, I'm sort of independent.
I am my own superintendent.
And my star is on the ascendent,
that's why I don't care.

Dino Part Three

Jules Verne's Journey to the Centre of the Earth wasn't what I expected, probably because of several screen adaptations that were pretty exciting. This book was slow...painfully so. I'm big on description and I did love the wonderful created scenes of Iceland in my head generated by Verne's hand, but there was so much prose taken up by getting to the center of the earth's entrance that even I, queen of setting, was chomping at the bit. I contrast this book to Lord of the Rings, another book deep with descriptive narrative. But LOTR does have action spaced throughout, even when parties are trudging through the sun-dappled, scent laden, bird chirruping forest. :-)


The other problem for me that when there was action, it was over very quickly, or there wasn't enough. For example, an ancient form of man is found living under the earth. He's sighted, and then...goes away!!! What??? No one's going to investigate??? There's a short paragraph on how the man might have gotten there, but that's it. I kept hoping the cave man or whatever he was would appear before the end of the book, but apparently even cavemen have things to do.

My final complaint was that the first person narrator wasn't appealing...he was a whiny, nervous, complainer who kept asking to go back. Even Bilbo toughened up after he realized he wasn't getting his second breakfast.

To recap, in this series I liked Rice Burrough's the best, closely followed by Doyle's, and Verne's a distant third. I would never have guessed that order when I started these. Just goes to show reading old stuff that you think you know can be surprising.

Marketing!

Daenariea Irene, Wild Child/Freya's Bower Marketing consultant, had the idea to put authors on  Pinterest! What a great idea...here I am. :-)


http://pinterest.com/pin/288793394825729257/

Dino Part Two

I know Sir Arthur Conan Doyle mostly because of Sherlock Holmes as I would guess is true for most people. He did write other kinds of stories though, including the next book in the dinosaur collection, the Land that Time Forgot.


It's actually quite similar to the books I just read by Rice Burrough's; prehistoric beasts, check, missing human links, check, journal-style writing, check. I would say for me this book was better written than Rice Burrough's, yet not as exciting. Maybe that's because they were so much alike and this was the second one I'd read. :-) At any rate, it was good, I enjoyed it.

Dino Part One

In my quest for summer reading and keeping to my budget, I'm interspacing current with classic. Budget-wise you can't get a better deal than classic literature...it's free or nominal. After the Oz books I decided to tackle some SF greats, and found a collection that all hover around the dinosaur theme, namely, all three of Edgar Rice Burrough's Caspak novels (The Land that Time Forgot, The People that Time Forgot, and Out of Time's Abyss), Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World, and Jules Verne's Journey to the Centre of the Earth.

I've read Jules Verne's Journey to the Centre of the Earth, but the others I had not. I know of them of course, and have seen various TV and movie adaptations and so was eager to try.

I finished the last of the of Edgar Rice Burrough's last night and was pleasantly surprised. For being so old, they are still fresh and exciting, even though much of the science is outdated and the prose is written past tense journal-style. I wasn't as pleased with the idea that as man evolved he became more Anglo looking, and the women, although "plucky" (his word), often must be saved. Even though some of the floundering women have lived in the jungle all their lives. Sigh.

Even so, I enjoyed them. It's fun reading the foundation literature that both sci-fi and fantasy come from.

Not The Same

Finished all the Oz books....heavy sigh. I'm so happy I read them all, but sad there are no more. I enjoyed them except the very last one, The Royal Book of Oz. Somehow it just didn't seem as ...Ozian. The character interaction was off, for example, too many puns. Baum was very funny and did use puns, but not like the last book. Also, the odd situations and creatures seemed forced. I just didn't like it.


I knew Baum had been ill and wondered if perhaps that could have been the reason his last effort wasn't quite as good. As I dug deeper, I discovered that the last so-called Baum book wasn't written by him at all, even though in the forward to the book his wife says it was constructed from his notes. Most historians now believe that the woman who eventually wrote more Oz books, Ruth Plumly Thompson, also wrote The Royal Book of Oz in its entirety.

Her writing isn't bad, it just isn't Baum.

I've enjoyed other Oz adaptation such as the Wicked books by Maguire because those don't try to be Baum books. And, unlike the recent Oz movie, the characters, in my opinion, deepen what Baum had intended.

I read that Thompson did love the Oz books and tried as hard as she could to imitate Baum. I believe her. But for me it just wasn't the same. Oh, and the kitten wasn't purple, it was PINK. :-)

The Wonderful Worlds of OZ

 I saw the new Oz movie a few weeks ago after anticipating for months. I knew they hadn't used much source material and that it was a "prequel" to the Wizard of Oz, so I didn't go into with thinking it would be like the books. (There are 15 to 18 Oz books by Frank Baum, depending if you count the ones that are not officially Oz books but about Oz characters.) I also understand film is a different media than books, and as such, sometime changes are necessary.


Nevertheless, I was disappointed. The acting was all fine, the scenery was ohmygod fabulous. But the story...I just didn't like it. The Oz books were never a romantic love story. And even with that, I might have been OK if the women in the film would have been strong; from the simpering China doll character to three, count 'em THREE witches fighting over the wizard who really wasn't a wizard?? These are WITCHES, after all, women who have power, vast holdings, and confidence. They wouldn't have fought over ANY man, let alone a humbug wizard. In my humble opinion.

FYI, if you want to see a movie that IS based on source material albeit mooshed up from several books, try the 1980's movie "Return to Oz."

So after the movie I was inspired to read all the Oz books which I purchased for one dollar on Kindle. I had read more than a few, but never the entire collection. The writing is old fashioned. They are sprinkled with unfortunate words of the time, especially concerning race. They also probably wouldn't meet today's youth appetite for realism and excitement.

Even so, Baum was remarkably ahead of his time. His women are strong and independent...Oz is ruled by Ozma, with Glenda the Good and Dorothy at her side. Baum also encourages people to be who they are, embodied in characters like the Shaggy Man who refuses to be Less Shaggy, and the Patchwork Girl who loves her multicolored deliciousness despite Ozian norms to the contrary. Baum gently teases people not to be intellectual snobs with his Woggle Bug, G.M.T.E. (Greatly Magnified and Thoroughly Educated), and the Sawhorse reminds readers that servitude, even if pleasant, is still servitude.

I am loving these books. If nothing else, the movie inspired me to read them all. Maybe the next Oz movie writers will do the same.

New Story Sold!

While editing my latest novel, one of my short stories, 'Skin and Bones' was accepted for the July 2013 issue of The Lorelei Signal as well as for the August 2013 issue of Mystic Signals, their sister publication.


It's always wonderful to have something published, and I have a soft spot for Lorelei because that magazine was my very first sale. Yea!!