This Year Christmas Won’t Be Late – Doctor Who is Coming

Posted on December 19, 2010 by Erin Underwood

The Doctor is in.

For years and years, U.S. fans of Doctor Who had to scavenge the net looking for unauthorized access to the Christmas specials. The BBC seems to have come to the conclussion that if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. This year, the 2010 Doctor Who Christmas Special: A Christmas Carol is going to air on Christmas Even in the U.S. No more You Tube battles with the BBC. No more nefarious “previews” promising the whole episode, if only you “click” this special link. No more sketchy reconfigurations of your IP address to trick the UK servers into letting you view Doctor Who on Christmas rather then New Years…or later. This truly is the best Christmas present ever. Thank you, BBC. Consider me tuned in.

2010 Doctor Who Christmas Special: A Christmas Carol
Written by: Steven Moffat
Premieres: December 25, 2010 at 9pm/8c

BBC Synopsis:  Amy and Rory are trapped on a crashing space liner, and the only way The Doctor can rescue them is to save the soul of a lonely old miser, in a festive edition of the time-travelling adventure, written by Steven Moffat. But is Kazran Sardick, the richest man in Sardicktown, beyond redemption? And what is lurking in the fogs of Christmas Eve?

Time can be rewritten………

From the BBC Website:
Matt and Karen return for an all-new Christmas special, along with Arthur Darvill and guest stars Michael Gambon (Harry Potter) and Katherine Jenkins.

Lead Writer and Executive Producer, Steven Moffat, confirmed, ‘Oh, we’re going for broke with this one. It’s all your favorite Christmas movies at once, in an hour, with monsters. And the Doctor. And a honeymoon. And … oh, you’ll see. I’ve honestly never been so excited about writing anything!‘

It’s Doctor Who all Christmas long with a marathon of favorites starting on December 24th at Midnight leading up to the special. BBC AMERICA will also premiere Doctor Who at the Proms at 1pm/12c on Christmas Day, a live concert featuring stars Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill as hosts.

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Getting on the New York Times Bestsellers List

Posted on December 19, 2010 by Erin Underwood

Securing a spot on the New York Times Bestsellers List is one of the things that most authors would love to achieve. However, it’s not an easy thing to do, and how books are chosen for the list is often a bit of a mystery to most people. So, when I came across this video by Jackson Pearce, I had to post it on my blog. Plus, Jackson’s quirky and fun to watch.

I’m sure there is more to the process of getting onto the NY Times Bestsellers List, but I did learn a few things that I didn’t know. Maybe you will, too.

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Virtual Bookstores in Second Life: An Interview with Jackson Street Books

Posted on December 18, 2010 by Erin Underwood

Nowadays, there are a number of ways to get your hands on your favorite books. That wasn’t always the case. In the past, you actually had to walk into a brick and mortar store to purchase new books. However, with the advent of online shopping, walking down cozy book filled aisles and attending live signings has become a rare act for many readers.

While online shopping has pulled customers out of physical bookstores, it has also created new possibilities that could never have existed otherwise. In the virtual world of Second Life, a whole community of people and shops exist, establishing a unique society that mirrors real life in many ways. No matter where you are, people can come together to meet, talk, socialize, and shop. One such virtual bookshop in Second Life is Jackson Street Books, an independent bookstore that looks and operates like a “real life” store. Jackson Street Books not only sells books, but also hosts live author events, bringing authors and fans together without worrying about borders, oceans, or time zones. Tammy Domike, founder of Jackson Street Books, shares her bookselling experiences in both Real Life and the virtual world of Second Life.

~

As an independent bookseller, what made you decide to open a virtual world bookstore in Second Life?
We had been involved in political groups in Second Life (SL) and I had attended author events such as the Virtually Speaking series. I realized SL would be a way to continue to have discussions with authors, even though we had moved 110 miles away from Seattle. At first, I thought it would be a cool club house for us to hang out in, decorated just like a bookstore. Then, as I learned how to script objects, I was able to make book cover images become live links to our online sales catalog for orders. The concept of the virtual bookstore has evolved as I learned how to turn the store into an honest replication of a bookstore, not simply a “play/pretend” bookstore. Plus, in SL my bookstore is housed in a lovely Carnegie building. The rent on that building in real life would be out of reach of any bookstore.

If readers or writers are interested in checking out Jackson Street Books or Second Life, what do they need to do? Is there a quick link to the bookstore?

Jackson Street Books in Second Life

You can start at this link to my reading hall, Lacamas, and you’ll be directed to download the software of the viewer. Then, you have the fun part of picking an avatar name and getting your pixel person all dressed up. Our umbrella group, Cafe Wellstone consists of many helpful folks who will be glad to assist new folks to SL. Just ask in group chat, and someone will answer you.

If people are looking to purchase books through Jackson Street Books’ virtual store, how does the purchase process or book selection differ from other online bookstores?
The books on our shelves feature author appearances in SL, or “virtually speaking” authors, but I also display books that we have in our real life (RL) bookstore. The SL links are to our inventory,  and in RL you can also order from us at abe.com or biblio.com. The ordering process is the same as any other online order. The fun part is choosing which books I want to highlight, just as I choose what goes on my shelves in RL.

What are some of the benefits and challenges of running a virtual world bookstore?
You could say the benefits are the same as the challenges: being able to work with authors long distance, and the frustration of being long distance from the authors while you teach them how to operate SL. Of course, I do find it a joy and a delight when it all comes together.

What advantage does a virtual world bookstore hold for authors and readers?
In the current economy, publishers are really cutting back on author’s travel budgets, if they were even given one. SL venues give an author a global audience from the comfort of their own home. People who live in remote places that aren’t on the 9-city East Coast circuit have a chance to interact with an author, and chat with the real person, where as you might only have time for a quick hello in a RL autographing line.

You’ve done author readings and appearances in Second Life. How does that work?

Garth and Tammy Domike

 

We talk via a Skype connection, which allows your hands free for typing in text chat, although that is tricky while you are talking! I usually recommend authors ignore that until the second part of the hour. It can be intense multi-tasking when you are new. I have a helper or two in the audience who make sure I don’t miss any questions from the crowd. We can create podcasts of the audio, or even machinima videos of the virtual reading.

What authors have Jackson Street Books hosted? Who is coming up?
We’ve had some terrific folks, Garth Stein, Jess Walter, the Boilerplate creators; Paul Guinan and Anina Bennett, Jeffery Kaye, Keith Thompson, Mason Tivert, Alicia Morgan, and then the whole gang of Interfictions2 where I met you! That was especially fun as we had so many voices all in one hour.

Do you have a favorite author event that you’ve done? If so, what was it about that event that you liked?
Well, that would have to be the event that had no book attached. Our friend GottaLaff at The Political Carnival is an activist who introduced us to Lt Col Barry Wingard, a JAG lawyer, defending Fayiz al-Kandari who has been locked up in GITMO for 9 years without charges. He was joined by co-counsel Lt Cmdr Kevin Bogucki at a Town Hall in the Virtually Speaking studios. VS generously gave us an hour on blogspot radio and the podcast is available here. I’m very proud to have been able to do even a little part helping these great men seek justice for Fayiz.

Do you have any advice for someone who wants to attend or hold a virtual world author event? Any lessons learned?
Don’t be nervous, be ready to laugh at any mis-haps that may happen, breathe deep and have fun. An event can be tightly controlled, but no matter how much prep you think you’ve done, the technology will throw a monkey wrench at you when it’s least expected.

Are there any new and exciting developments that Jackson Street Books has in store?
We’ll be having a Holiday Open House this weekend, and I hope some of our author guests will be able to drop by Lacamas on Sunday between 6 and 9pm (Second Life time is Pacific Time)

Monday, Dec 27th, we’ll be talking to Ray Vukcevich about his new short story collection, Boarding Instructions. I had met an avatar named Ookami Moonbeam, who wanted to know about the bookstore. While I was showing him around, he told me he was actually Ray, and I told him I was actually the Tammy who met him at Seattle Mystery’s autographing party for The Man of Maybe Half A Dozen Faces a decade or so ago! Even in the pixel, its a small world.

~

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Science Fiction Mysteries: An Interview with Jack McDevitt

Posted on December 16, 2010 by Erin Underwood

A couple of years ago, I was looking for some new science fiction to read. So, I went to Borders Books and scoured the shelves, considering dozens of books, reading the backs, looking at the covers, and putting most of them back. Then, I picked up The Seeker, a book with an interesting spaceship on the cover, but it was the blurb that caught my eye. “The logical heir to Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke.” – Stephen King. That got my attention.

I purchased three books; one of them was The Seeker. I can’t remember the titles or the authors of the other two books. They are long gone. However, within thirty pages of McDevitt’s book, I was a fan. When I finished The Seeker, it went back on my shelf as a keeper. Since then, I have read each of McDevitt’s Alex Benedict novels and enjoyed them all. Echo, the most recent addition to the series, is available now.

However, I wanted to know more about the man. Who is Jack McDevitt? What inspires him to write science fiction about a futuristic antiquarian like Alex Benedict? Luckily, he has graciously agreed to be interviewed, satisfying my curiosity. Interviewing with McDevitt was a pleasure, and I’m thrilled to share his responses with you.

~

When did you know that you wanted to be a writer? How long ago did you begin writing professionally?
I started my fiirst novel when I was about eight. Title was The Canals of Mars. Actually, I had two major ambitions growing up: One was to be a science fiction writer; the other was to play shortstop for the Phillies.

I sold my first story in 1979. It was “The Emerson Effect,” published, I believe in the Dec 1979 issue of Twilight Zone. Been writing ever since.

What is it about writing science fiction that you most enjoy or most excites you?
I like the issues I can deal with in SF: Given an opportunity to have a child with an IQ twice as high as mine, would I want to do that? Is machine intelligence possible, and if so, what do you do with an AI that declares it wants to be a Catholic? Are we alone in the universe? If time had no beginning –as it seems it could not–, how did we ever get to 2010? The possibilities go on and on. And it’s just more exciting writing about these sorts of things than about adultery in the suburbs or serial killers or espionage.

Many of your novels feature strong historical themes that center on discovering or recovering the past. Where does your interest in history come from? Do you have a secret historian or antiquarian living inside of you?
I’ve always been fascinated by important things that get lost. The wonders of the ancient world, most of the plays and histories of the Greeks and Romans, individual acts of generosity and courage. When I was in graduate school at Wesleyan, one of the professors talked about someone who had, at the height of the Renaissance, gone to Athens and discovered a trunkful of lost plays. He bought the trunk from the owner, put it on a ship, and started back for Genoa. On the way, a storm blew up and the ship, and the trunk, went down. It was one of the saddest stories I’d ever heard. We don’t even know what was lost.

We tend not to appreciate the present. When I was teaching English at Woodrow Wilson HS in Levittown, PA, I remember telling classes that the day would come when they’d give almost anything to be able to come back to that day, to that moment, and be able to see old friends again, and to be young again. A few months ago, I was invited to a reunion of one of the classes from that school. Those kids are all retired now. The ones who’ve survived. I realized I’d missed part of the truth: That I too would give a lot to be able to go back and spend time with them. And have things once more as they were then.

While many science fiction novels focus on futuristic technology and events, your novels are placed in the future, but look back to discover the past. What it is about this “backward glance” that most interests you and inspires your creative storytelling process?
It’s intriguing to try imagining us as we’ll be seen from the distant future. Churchill? Yes, I’ve heard of him. Which side was he on? Chase Kolpath uses the phrase ‘Nice going, Sherlock,’ and wonders about the reference. But there’s more to it rhan that: Creating a history for a future world gives that world a reality, a tangibility that it would not otherwise have..

Mystery novels require specific story elements, no matter the genre. However, when writing a science fiction mystery, are there any special elements that writers need to consider or include?
I think the basic elements are the same in all mysteries. The solution should make sense, and ideally the reader, when he reaches it, should say, yes, how could I not have seen that coming? In SF, the writer has to avoid a solution that employs fantastic elements. The murderer does not turn up with a time machine. The people who vanished out of the starship were not swept away by aliens. And so on.

An advantage for the science fictional mystery is that it ideally is not tied to the routine whodunnit format. In Gilbert Chesterton’s brilliant Father Brown stories, the issue is not always about who commited the crime, but rather about what really happened here? How did a guy standing in a locked room at the top of the Belmont Tower, with no tall buildings in the area, still wind up with an arrow through his heart? This is the sort of mystery that works so well in an SF setting. We have a man who spent a lifetime in a decimated world looking for a lost library. He comes home, admits failure, and becomes the subject of ridicule. Ten years later, he walks into the Mississippi. Among his belongings we discover a volume of Mark Twain’s essays. A book long believed lost. He found what he was looking for, but why did he deny it?

When you wrote A TALENT FOR WAR, did you conceive it as the first of a series? How many more Alex Benedict novels do you foresee in our future?
Talent grew out of a short story, “Dutchman,” that appeared in Asimov’s during the 80’s. I never expected to revisit it. I hadn’t planned to do any sequels. Then I discovered that there was no point inventing a whole new world for a narrative, if I already had one that would fit nicely. For example, why create new characters? Why have to keep explaining how fast a starship can travel?

When I got the idea for Polaris, in which a starship is found deserted, and there seems no place they could have gone, I decided it was the perfect setup for Alex Benedict, the protagonist from “Talent.” I blundered, though. I used Alex as the narrator –as he had been in the first novel– only to realize, about 2/3 of the way through, that Chase would be preferable. So I went back and rewrote everything. Chase has remained the narrator.

How many more Alex Benedict novels will there be?
I haven’t a clue. It depends on whether I continue getting ideas that would work for a futuristic antique dealer.

It’s pretty clear that Alex Benedict hopes there might be little green men out there somewhere in the cosmos, but what does Jack McDevitt think? Do you think there is life out there?
Life on Earth started soon after it became possible. That suggests that, given the appropriate conditions, it will happen. That may not be the case, but it seems to be. Moreover, there are presumably trillions of worlds out there orbiting in their biozones. If we are the only living world, then I’d argue it proves beyond any doubt that we were an act of creation by a divine engineer.

What do you think would most surprise Alex Benedict about our present or past that he doesn’t already know? What earthly artifact would he love to discover?
He’d probably be surprised at a civilized nation whose people pay so little attention to what is going on in the country. That we are so easily talked into backing policies that damage us. That we support wars and wave the flag and support policies without asking some hard questions. That we are still so subject to a tribal mentality. (This assumes we’ll have matured by Alex’s time.)

As to an artifact? Probably a book that’s gotten lost. Maybe the Mark Twain collection mentioned earlier.

Of the Alex Benedict novels, do you have a personal favorite? If so, what is it about that novel that resonates for you?
Erin, If I tried to pick one, I’d probably have a different answer in twenty-four hours. No, I really don’t have a favorite. I enjoy writing about Chase and Alex. Each book, so far, seems to have worked, and I’m –of course– happy with that.

When writing Echo, was there a scene that you particularly enjoyed writing? What was it about that scene that you enjoyed?
In a novel like Echo, the pleasure comes from the adrenalin. For me, the most poweful moment in the book comes when Chase tries to do the rescue on the bridge. Or maybe when Alex grasps the enormity of the disaster. I can’t go farther than that without revealing things.

Without giving away any spoilers, what new adventures do you foresee in Alex Benedict’s future? What about Chase?
They are of course a team. In their next outing, Firebird, they try to solve a mystery that’s been recurring for thousands of years: Occasional starships are sighted, but they do not respond to transmissions, other than with screams and desperate cries in an unknown language.

~

Jack McDevitt is a former English teacher, naval officer, Philadelphia taxi driver, customs officer, and motivational trainer. His work has been on the final Nebula ballot twelve of the last thirteen years. His first novel, The Hercules Text, was published in the celebrated Ace Specials series, and won the Philip K. Dick Special Award. In 1991, he won the first $10,000 UPC International Prize for his novella “Ships in the Night.” The Engines of God was a finalist for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and his novella “Time Travelers Never Die” was nominated for both the Hugo and the Nebula. Omega received the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best SF novel, 2003. McDevitt lives in Georgia with his wife Maureen, where he plays chess, reads mysteries, and eats lunch regularly with his cronies. www.jackmcdevitt.com
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One Word Interview: SPARK

Posted on December 13, 2010 by Erin Underwood
The next One Word Interview is here! Underwords has gathered an amazing group of science fiction writers to participate in December’s One Word Interview, responding in 50 words or fewer to the word SPARK. As we bring 2010 to a close, it’s time to let loose our imaginations. Who better to interview than some of the best science fiction writers that the field has to offer?

SPARK

Spark is the seed of a story, a flash of an idea, a collision of thoughts, maybe a misheard word or an incongruous glimpse, all of which tangle and tumble together into the start of a great adventure.
– Kevin J. Anderson

It’s smoke that suggests fire; sparks are evidence only of themselves.
– Elizabeth Bear

SPARK… ignition, the leap over (across or through!) an energy barrier that takes a latent union of two energies and triggers them to marry, releasing more energy still. In human beings this is the Idea that overcomes lethargy. That takes the staid and smugly cynical and makes then realize: “Hey, we’ve taken strides before. All right. Maybe we can gather the will for yet another step. Forward.”
– David Brin

I have a good friend who calls herself “Madam Spark” online. It comes from her husband’s nickname for her, the origin of which I have never pried into. But it’s an apt name. She is compassionate and patient, with a ready smile even for idiots. (Having been the idiot from time to time, I know.) Yet she cannot hide, from those who know her, that spark of a fiery temper, a passionate personality. So when I hear the word “spark,” I think of her smiling at a fool, cheerfully refusing to say all the devastating words that are burning in that spark behind her eyes.
– Orson Scott Card

The spark wakes me up 3AM with the solution to a story problem and I stumble out of bed and scribble it on the back of an envelope, but just as I’m pulling the covers over me the spark sparks again and so I spend half the night writing.
– James Patrick Kelly

Spark
In the middle of the important meeting
without warning she looks you in the eyes
and you remember that you are made entirely out of electricity.
– John Kessel

SPARK: The small electric thrill when a story idea comes to me. Fan it, fan it, careful now, not too much fuel too soon… damn, it went out. Wait for the next one. Sometimes they fly thick and bright against the black sky, sometimes nothing for a long gray time. The writing life.
– Nancy Kress

SPARK
Rushing from the primordial darkness, spark was what God got when She said, “Luke’s Fiat.” Spark, and fire, and ice, and earth, and air, and all the vengeful writhing business of life, love, fiction and the inner light that drives us all to be better than ourselves. Spark is creation.
– Jay Lake

When I was a boy on Lewis
we clashed white stones together
in the dark
of the shelter
to make a spark.

We called them flints
but they didn’t flake, so
probably not. They made
no edges –
just sparks
and the smell
of matches.
– Ken MacLeod

A spark is a bit of airborne burning matter. Opportunities for metaphors abound.
– Larry Niven

“Spark” is actually thousands of nano-slivers that converge and intertwine within the brain. The rapture of spark is the rapture of life being transformed to, hopefully, reflect back light, and…life. Today, woken: city-traps-immigrants-gift-passionflower-anemone-awakened-grit-sea-brine-father-shadow-free.
– Jeff VanderMeer

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Lightning Strikes: An Interview with Science Fiction Writer Joe Haldeman

Posted on December 1, 2010 by Erin Underwood

Science fiction writer Joe Haldeman is a writer’s writer. He’s one of the people other writers go to when they want to learn more about the literary craft. While it is not uncommon to find a science fiction writer teaching other writers the art of writing science fiction, it’s less common to find a science fiction writer teaching scientists “to be” to write science fiction, but that’s exactly what he does at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) – one of the premiere science and technology universities in the world. However, there is more to Haldeman than his role as a writer or as a teacher.

Haldeman lived through the Vietnam War, he attended the University of Iowa’s Writers’ Workshop when it wasn’t cool to write science fiction in an MFA program, and he has won a host of literary awards for his work. Even more remarkable, than his extensive list of accomplishments and successes, is that he did it all while maintaining a happy and strong relationship with his wife, Gay.

It was a sincere honor to interview Joe Haldeman about his career as a writer and teacher, and I hope that this interview, at least in some small way, has captured the depth of knowledge and experience that he has acquired over his career, spanning 40 years and counting.

Joe, you earned a B.S. in astronomy from the University of Maryland. Then, several years later, you decided to get an MFA in creative writing from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. What inspired you to want an MFA?

I was curious about what you could learn in that environment, but it was mainly about the money. With my GI Bill and two years’ income as a graduate assistant (and Gay’s income as a graduate assistant in linguistics), we could live pretty well even if I only sold short stories.

What I didn’t realize was that the MFA would eventually lead to a professorship at MIT. At the time, I wasn’t thinking about an academic career; if I had been, I would’ve gone for a Ph.D. in astronomy.

You were drafted into the Vietnam War in 1967, how did that experience inform your writing and your teaching?

A war gives you at least one novel’s worth of subject matter; it gave me my first novel and, later, my first science fiction novel. Even later, my longest and most ambitious novel, 1968.

I don’t know that the war itself did much to inform my teaching, but having been a soldier made public speaking relatively easy. I used to be really nervous about it. But hey, what can the audience do to you? Chuck a grenade at you? Been there, done that.

Of all of the works you have written, looking back, what piece would you write differently today? What would you want to change about it?

In an important way, that’s a question without meaning. Every piece would be completely different; I wouldn’t write the same books at all. I probably would write a war novel, since I’m not stupid, and I would probably write a science fiction novel about war, because I love science fiction. (But if WAR YEAR had been wildly successful, it might have led me into a career as a more “literary” novelist.)

You are a voracious traveler. If you could visit any time, anywhere in existence, where would you most like to go and what kinds of things would you like to discover?

I think in terms of people rather than places. I would love to sit and listen to Samuel Johnson and Boswell chatting, or watch Shakespeare in the rehearsal of plays he wrote. Einstein talking astrophysics with Hubble. Sample the charms of a world-class seductress like Mata Hari or Cleopatra. Work in the kitchen with Charles Beard and enjoy the results. Watch Louis Armstrong find his new voice in Chicago.

Step onto the moon with the other Armstrong.

You have lived in a variety of locations in your life. How did you end up in Cambridge, teaching creative writing at MIT?

Well, we’re only there for 3.5 months of the year, and otherwise live in Florida. I got there more or less by accident. Frank Conroy, who was a professor at MIT, had visited the University of Iowa in the early 80’s, and someone mentioned that someone who’d graduated from the workshop had become, of all things, a science fiction writer.

A few weeks later, Frank was in the MIT Writing Department office and overheard someone complain that all the fiction students were writing science fiction, and none of the faculty knew anything about it. He said they ought to call Iowa and find out who and where I was. They called me in Florida and I wound up doing a one-year visiting professorship. They offered me a full-time position, but I didn’t want that, and compromised by agreeing to be an adjunct professor, coming in for one semester a year.

You have taught quite a few science fiction writing workshops during your career. What is it like teaching creative writing to MIT students? Are there any special challenges or benefits?

The big benefit is that no one is stupid. It’s a real world-class challenge, trying to teach writing to people who aren’t intelligent. The students at MIT may not be natural writers – they often aren’t interested in writing at all – but if you tell them how to do something they will understand, and give it a solid shot.

One negative thing, related, is that I’m unlikely to find students who’ve always wanted to be writers. (They all went down the street to Harvard.) Even teaching in a small community college, I’ll have several people in class who would give anything to be able to write for a living. At MIT, not so much . . .

What unexpected event surprised you most in your career, either writing or teaching? What was it about that event that affected you?

Hollywood. THE FOREVER WAR made me contacts in movies and legitimate stage that made life a lot more interesting and somewhat easier financially.

Movies are a different world from books; even a small movie involves money several orders of magnitude larger than even a successful novel. You meet a lot of different kinds of people, with radically different views of life, and life itself takes on a new pace and color.

I wouldn’t want to do it for a living (in fact have twice turned down lucrative studio writing jobs), but as a sort of out-of-body experience it’s like nothing else.

The most interesting thing I’ve learned about teaching is how common writing talent is. In most classes I have one or two or even ten people who have enough talent to write for a living. Whether they can handle the difficult aspects of apprenticeship, and whether they can keep coming up with interesting stuff to write about – those are qualities unrelated to talent.

What has been the most rewarding experience of your career as a writer or teacher?

More so than other careers, perhaps, writing is a succession of “firsts” – first story published, first novel, first awards, first movie rights – and it’s something that gets you through lean times. You never know when lightning is going to strike.

For new writers who want to focus on science fiction specifically, is there any advice you can give them about writing in this genre?

Understand that it’s crowded. There’s less opportunity in SF than there was when I entered the field, and a lot more competition. If you’re good, you’ll get published, and if you’re lucky you’ll be able to make a living at it. If you’re real lucky, you can make a good living.

It would be smart to have something to fall back on. Marrying someone with serious money is a good career move. Learn a trade, like hit man or safecracker, that leaves you a lot of time to write.

If you’re a student, I’d recommend getting a degree in something other than writing. Everybody who becomes a writer learns how to do it by reading. If you pursue studies in physics or social work or art criticism, you’ll have things to write about that fall outside of common experience, and that’s especially valuable in science fiction (but isn’t a bad idea for any kind of writing).

What new projects are you working on now?

I’m finishing up EARTHBOUND, the third book in the Marsbound trilogy, and have begun preliminary writing on the next two, tentatively titled WORK DONE FOR HIRE and PROJECT PHOBOS.

A couple of days ago I told the editor of F&SF that I’ll do a short story based on a cover painting, and the painting looks sufficiently weird to make it an interesting project.

Joe Haldeman was born in 1943 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and grew up in Anchorage, Alaska and Bethesda, Maryland. In 1967, he received his B.S. in astronomy from the University of Maryland. He was drafted into the Vietnam War in 1968 where he earned the Purple Heart and other medals for his service. After his tour of duty, he returned to the University of Maryland to do some graduate work in math and computer science, but he left without a degree in order to pursue his writing career. In 1975, Haldeman attended the Writer’s Workshop at The University of Iowa where he received his MFA in creative writing.
He has taught science fiction writing at MIT since 1983. Over the years, Haldeman has also taught at numerous other writing workshops such as Clarion, Clarion West, SUNY Buffalo, and Princeton just to name a few. Haldeman has won a staggering number of awards which include the Hugo, Nebula, and Ditmar Awards as well as the Galaxy Award for “Science Fiction and Spirituality,” the Rhysling Award for best science fiction poem, the Italian “Futuro Remoto” Award, the World Fantasy Award, the John W. Campbell Award, and the James Tiptree Award. He and his wife Mary Gay (Potter) Haldeman have been happily married since 1965 and spend their time living between Gainesville, FL and Cambridge, MA when they are not traveling the world.
You can find Joe Haldeman online at: http://home.earthlink.net/~haldeman/index.html
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Best Books Covers of 2010

Posted on November 29, 2010 by Erin Underwood

Book covers are a special kind of art that lines the shelves of bookstores, giving readers an eye dazzling display of literary shopping possibilities. In a big way, part of the fun of shopping for and reading books includes looking at the image on the cover. While we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, a good cover will sure help sell a book.  The question is what makes a good book cover? What catches your eye and draws you into the story upon the page?

I may not be an artist or an art critic, but I know what makes me stop walking down an aisle to pick up a book, wanting to know what’s inside. Here are 10 of my favorite covers from 2010.

The Replcement by Brenna Yovanoff
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
Date: September 21, 2010

I love everything about this cover, but what sticks with me most is the mobile of deadly instruments hanging over the baby carriage. The antique carriage, the lone tree limb, and the mysterious fog all work together to create a mysterious landscape that hides even more mysteries just out of sight.

Mackie Doyle is not one of us. Though he lives in the small town of Gentry, he comes from a world of tunnels and black murky water, a world of living dead girls ruled by a little tattooed princess. He is a Replacement—left in the crib of a human baby sixteen years ago. Now, because of fatal allergies to iron, blood, and consecrated ground, Mackie is fighting to survive in the human world.
Mackie would give anything to live among us, to practice on his bass or spend time with his crush, Tate. But when Tate’s baby sister goes missing, Mackie is drawn irrevocably into the underworld of Gentry, known as Mayhem. He must face the dark creatures of the Slag Heaps and find his rightful place, in our world, or theirs.
Edward Scissorhands meets The Catcher in the Rye in this wildly imaginative and frighteningly beautiful horror novel about an unusual boy and his search for a place to belong.

Behemoth by Scott Westerfield
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing
Date: October 05, 2010

Here’s a cover that is truly eye-catching. From the contrasting green, white, and black colors to the wonderfully elaborate designs that focus your eye up to Deryn’s face. It’s a great example of an artist blending imagery from the past and present together in high steampunk style.

The behemoth is the fiercest creature in the British navy. It can swallow enemy battleships with one bite. The Darwinists will need it, now that they are at war with the Clanker powers.
Deryn is a girl posing as a boy in the British Air Service, and Alek is the heir to an empire posing as a commoner. Finally together aboard the airship Leviathan, they hope to bring the war to a halt. But when disaster strikes the Leviathan’s peacekeeping mission, they find themselves alone and hunted in enemy territory.
Alek and Deryn will need great skill, new allies, and brave hearts to face what’s ahead.

Incarceration by Catherine Fisher
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
Date: January 26, 2010

The form of the key along with the layering of clocks, locks, gears, and trees leaves a lot to the imagination. The look and feel of this cover is especially effective with the muted shades of black and blue that draw your eye up the stem of the key to its head and further up where it lands upon the title of the book.

Incarceron is a prison so vast that it contains not only cells, but also metal forests, dilapidated cities, and vast wilderness. Finn, a seventeen-year-old prisoner, has no memory of his childhood and is sure that he came from Outside Incarceron. Very few prisoners believe that there is an Outside, however, which makes escape seems impossible.
And then Finn finds a crystal key that allows him to communicate with a girl named Claudia. She claims to live Outside- she is the daughter of the Warden of Incarceron, and doomed to an arranged marriage. Finn is determined to escape the prison, and Claudia believes she can help him. But they don’t realize that there is more to Incarceron than meets the eye. Escape will take their greatest courage and cost more than they know.

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing
Date: August 31, 2010

The cover for Clockwork Angel captivated me at first glance. From the dashing hero to the historic London background to the faded clockwork images in the sky and the golden angel in the center of the design, this cover made me want to know the story that inspired the art.

When sixteen-year-old Tessa Gray crosses the ocean to find her brother, her destination is England, the time is the reign of Queen Victoria, and something terrifying is waiting for her in London’s Downworld, where vampires, warlocks and other supernatural folk stalk the gaslit streets. Only the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the world of demons, keep order amidst the chaos.
Kidnapped by the mysterious Dark Sisters, members of a secret organization called The Pandemonium Club, Tessa soon learns that she herself is a Downworlder with a rare ability: the power to transform, at will, into another person. What’s more, the Magister, the shadowy figure who runs the Club, will stop at nothing to claim Tessa’s power for his own.
Friendless and hunted, Tessa takes refuge with the Shadowhunters of the London Institute, who swear to find her brother if she will use her power to help them. She soon finds herself fascinated by—and torn between—two best friends: James, whose fragile beauty hides a deadly secret, and blue-eyed Will, whose caustic wit and volatile moods keep everyone in his life at arm’s length . . . everyone, that is, but Tessa. As their search draws them deep into the heart of an arcane plot that threatens to destroy the Shadowhunters, Tessa realizes that she may need to choose between saving her brother and helping her new friends save the world. . . . and that love may be the most dangerous magic of all.

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
Publisher: Night Shade Books
Date: May 01, 2010

Skyscrapers, blimps, elephants. What more can you ask for in a cover? Beautiful artwork and detail? Well, it has that, too! The scene depicted on this cover gives you a fantastic idea of the world within this story, and it’s one that I want to know better.

Anderson Lake is a company man, AgriGen’s Calorie Man in Thailand. Under cover as a factory manager, Anderson combs Bangkok’s street markets in search of foodstuffs thought to be extinct, hoping to reap the bounty of history’s lost calories. There, he encounters Emiko…
Emiko is the Windup Girl, a strange and beautiful creature. One of the New People, Emiko is not human; instead, she is an engineered being, creche-grown and programmed to satisfy the decadent whims of a Kyoto businessman, but now abandoned to the streets of Bangkok. Regarded as soulless beings by some, devils by others, New People are slaves, soldiers, and toys of the rich in a chilling near future in which calorie companies rule the world, the oil age has passed, and the side effects of bio-engineered plagues run rampant across the globe.
What Happens when calories become currency? What happens when bio-terrorism becomes a tool for corporate profits, when said bio-terrorism’s genetic drift forces mankind to the cusp of post-human evolution? Award-winning author Paolo Bacigalupi delivers one of the most highly acclaimed science fiction novels of the twenty-first century.

Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse edited by John Joseph Adams
Publisher: Night Shade Books
Date: January 01, 2008

All you have to do is look at this image and you know what you’re going to get with this book. The desperate, desolate scenery keys into our worst fears of what might be waiting for us in the future – and it looks bleak. Yet, it’s an image that I can’t turn away from. I want to know what these writers have in store for us when the apocalypse comes.

Famine, Death, War, and Pestilence: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the harbingers of Armageddon – these are our guides through the Wastelands… From the Book of Revelations to The Road Warrior; from A Canticle for Leibowitz to The Road, storytellers have long imagined the end of the world, weaving tales of catastrophe, chaos, and calamity. Gathering together the best post-apocalyptic literature of the last two decades from many of today’s most renowned authors of speculative fiction, including George R.R. Martin, Gene Wolfe, Orson Scott Card, Carol Emshwiller, Jonathan Lethem, Octavia E. Butler, and Stephen King, Wastelands explores the scientific, psychological, and philosophical questions of what it means to remain human in the wake of Armageddon.

Surface Detail by Iain M. Banks
Publisher: Little Brown & Company
Date: October 28, 2010

The thing that I love about this cover is how the details of the planet’s surface are reflected within the character’s eyes. I also really like the author’s name printed in bold, white colors because it makes the mysterious face and eyes stand out against the darkness. Also, the gold and black colors create a dazzling background that grabs and holds my attention, making me wonder, “What’s down there?”

It begins in the realm of the Real, where matter still matters. It begins with a murder. And it will not end until the Culture has gone to war with death itself.
Lededje Y’breq is one of the Intagliated, her marked body bearing witness to a family shame, her life belonging to a man whose lust for power is without limit. Prepared to risk everything for her freedom, her release, when it comes, is at a price, and to put things right she will need the help of the Culture.
Benevolent, enlightened and almost infinitely resourceful though it may be, the Culture can only do so much for any individual. With the assistance of one of its most powerful – and arguably deranged – warships, Lededje finds herself heading into a combat zone not even sure which side the Culture is really on. A war – brutal, far-reaching – is already raging within the digital realms that store the souls of the dead, and it’s about to erupt into reality.
It started in the realm of the Real and that is where it will end. It will touch countless lives and affect entire civilizations, but at the centre of it all is a young woman whose need for revenge masks another motive altogether.

Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Date: November 09, 2010

A lone figure, hiding her face with one arm and reaching down with the other – it’s a striking image that is reminiscent of the best of King’s fiction. The simplicity of the human figure alone against the dark background is a sad and disturbing image, not to mention eery when paired with the bright red author’s name and the lighter colored book title.

“I believe there is another man inside every man, a stranger . . .” writes Wilfred Leland James in the early pages of the riveting confession that makes up “1922,” the first in this pitch-black quartet of mesmerizing tales from Stephen King. For James, that stranger is awakened when his wife, Arlette, proposes selling off the family homestead and moving to Omaha, setting in motion a gruesome train of murder and madness.
In “Big Driver,” a cozy-mystery writer named Tess encounters the stranger along a back road in Massachusetts when she takes a shortcut home after a book-club engagement. Violated and left for dead, Tess plots a revenge that will bring her face-to-face with another stranger: the one inside herself.
“Fair Extension,” the shortest of these tales, is perhaps the nastiest and certainly the funniest. Making a deal with the devil not only saves Dave Streeter from a fatal cancer but provides rich recompense for a lifetime of resentment.
When her husband of more than twenty years is away on one of his business trips, Darcy Anderson looks for batteries in the garage. Her toe knocks up against a box under a worktable and she discovers the stranger inside her husband. It’s a horrifying discovery, rendered with bristling intensity, and it definitively ends a good marriage.
Like Different Seasons and Four Past Midnight, which generated such enduring films as The Shawshank Redemption and Stand by Me, Full Dark, No Stars proves Stephen King a master of the long story form.

The Amazing Spider-Man 5: Marvel Masterworkd, Nos. 41-50 & Annual No. 3 by Stan Lee & John Romita
Publisher: Marvel Enterprises, Incorporated
Date: November 10, 2010

This cover is one of my favorites. It does an amazing job of contrasting the hero and the man as the hero faces the light and the man walk off, head down, into the darkness. What I love most are the bold red rays of light that illuminate the darkness, reflecting the colors of the Spiderman suit. Plus, the general design harkens back to art forms of the 1930s and 1940s that reflected the political activism of the time.

We finally meet Mary Jane! After months of hints and failed setups, Mary Jane Watson jumps into Peter Parker’s life with a bang – leaving him unsure who he likes more, MJ or Gwen Stacy! And while Peter gets a motorcycle and his fi rst apartment with friend Harry Osborn, Spider-Man faces villains deadlier than ever! The Lizard! Kraven the Hunter! A new Vulture! The Kingpin! And introducing the Rhino and Shocker! What’s a web-slinger to do? Plus: The Avengers try to recruit Spidey by sending him after the Hulk! And weary of public mistrust, Peter decides he’ll be Spider-Man no more!

Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing
Date: September 21, 2010

This three-color cover is as lovely as it is tragic. The figure of the falling angel in near silhouette, the grey cloudy sky with light shining down from above, the loose bright red wing feathers – all of these details create instant drama and an unforgettable image.

Romance was not part of Nora Grey’s plan. She’s never been particularly attracted to the boys at her school, no matter how hard her best friend, Vee, pushes them at her. Not until Patch comes along. With his easy smile and eyes that seem to see inside her, Patch draws Nora to him against her better judgment.
But after a series of terrifying encounters, Nora’s not sure whom to trust. Patch seems to be everywhere she is and seems to know more about her than her closest friends. She can’t decide whether she should fall into his arms or run and hide. And when she tries to seek some answers, she finds herself near a truth that is way more unsettling than anything Patch makes her feel.
For she is right in the middle of an ancient battle between the immortal and those who have fallen — and, when it comes to choosing sides, the wrong choice will cost Nora her life.

Paranormalcy by Kiersten White
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Date: August 31, 2010

This cover his all of the high points for attracting the eye: a mysterious background, a hot blond girl, and a delicate pink dress – not to mention the look of distress on her face. This cover makes me want to read the book to find out who she is and if she’s going to be okay.

Evie’s always thought of herself as a normal teenager, even though she works for the International Paranormal Containment Agency, her ex-boyfriend is a faerie, she’s falling for a shape-shifter, and she’s the only person who can see through paranormals’ glamours.
But Evie’s about to realize that she may very well be at the center of a dark faerie prophecy promising destruction to all paranormal creatures.
So much for normal.

Possessions by Nancy Holder
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
Date: September 03, 2009

Granted, Possessions was originally published in 2009, but it was reissued this year with this new cover that is OMG creepy. While the cover may look simple with an eery shadow-eyed girl coming out of the water, it is the reflection of the girl in the pool that tingles my spine. What’s down there in the water? What’s coming out? What’s getting left behind? It’s a perfect reflection of the story beneath the cover.

The It Girl meets The Exorcist in this chilling, haunted boarding school tale.
New-girl Lindsay discovers all is not right at the prestigious Marlwood Academy for Girls. Ethereal, popular Mandy and her clique are plotting something dangerous. Lindsay overhears them performing strange rituals, and sees their eyes turn black. It doesn’t help that the school itself is totally eerie, with ancient, dilapidated buildings tucked into the Northern California woods, a thick white fog swirling through campus. There are hidden passageways, odd reflections in the windows at night, and scariest of all is the vast lake rumored to have captured the ghost of a girl who drowned many years ago.
What Lindsay doesn’t yet realize is that Mandy and her cohorts are becoming possessed by spirits who have haunted the school for two hundred years. Spirits who want someone dead…
And that someone is Lindsay.
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Graphic Novels Come to Life: Help a film get made, Neil Gaiman’s “The Price”

Posted on November 26, 2010 by Erin Underwood

A graphic novel come to life. A video imaged. A unique film that needs your help.

Filmmaker Christopher Salmon is looking for your help to finish the production of THE GIFT, a short story by author Neil Gaiman. This project was dreamed up and created by Salmon without backing from any studio. He has brought Gaiman’s “The Price” to life in such a way that it combines animated film and graphic novels panels together without falling fully into one category or the other. The effect is amazing. Because this project doesn’t have a big production company backing it, he needs help raising funds to finish the film. This is where we can make a difference. I’ve made a contribution, and I hope you will, too.

View Salmon’s video clip:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2024077040/neil-gaimans-the-price/widget/video.html

Excerpt from Christopher Salmon’s website:

My name is Christopher Salmon and I am hard at work creating a CG film version of the short story The Price by award winning author Neil Gaiman. More than anything else, I want to share my vision with as many people as possible; in order to fund this film, I’ve turned to those who would most want to see it — all of you!!! By clicking on the Kickstarter button, you can visit my project page and learn how you can help change this from being just a dream (albeit a feverishly vibrant one) into living, breathing, fantastical reality! Whether you are a long-time Neil Gaiman fan or have just arrived at the party, this is a unique opportunity to participate in creating the kind of entertainment we all really want to see! No big studios, no bureaucratic “design-by-committee” dilution of artistic potential and integrity … just focused, passionate filmmaking driven by the pure desire to tell a story that has truly inspired me as well as I possibly can. Sound good? It can happen!!! Just click on the Kickstarter button and you’ll see how easy it is …

If you have the means, even $10 would help to make a difference, please take a chance and help this film get made.

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One Word Interview – VAMPIRE

Posted on November 25, 2010 by Erin Underwood

In honor of Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year, this One Word Interview features the word VAMPIRE.

Special thanks to the young adult, dark fiction, and horror writers who participated in the Black Friday One Word Interview, featuring the VAMPIRE. This Black Friday, support young adult fiction by using your YALITCHAT coupon (see below) when making your book purchases at Borders Books in the store or online. While the coupon doesn’t give you additional discounts, Border’s Books will contribute a portion of your purchase to YALITCHAT, a nonprofit organization supporting the advancement of young adult literature around the world.

VAMPIRE

~

Vampire.
Fun, fangs and fabulosity…that’s what my heroine, Gina, fashionista of the damned, would say. Me? I’d say that death wipes the slate clean. Your identity dies with you. Rising from the dead is like rebirth and the possibility of reinvention. Sudden freedom often means a walk on the wild side. Maybe that’s the appeal.
– Lucienne Diver, ReVamped

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Vampires. The immortal leeches whose fictional portrayal changes to become whatever we need at the time–a warning or a promise. Alternately, the real and mortal and wealthy leeches who thrive on the thankless efforts of the herd.
– Christopher Golden, Buffy the Vampire Slayer 3 and When Rose Wakes

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VAMPIRE:
That haunting sinister beauty which teaches you not to be afraid of the dark…even when there might be something to be afraid of!

Also they’ve had centuries to practice kissing. Just saying.
– Alyxandra Harvey, Out for Blood

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VAMPIRE
Buffy got it right. You can die young and stay pretty. I love vampires. Brooding, evil, savage, romantic. Conflicted. And powerful. The perfect, changeable monster, demon lover, warrior, canvas. Give me a fang long enough and a coffin in which to place it, and I shall move the world.
– Nancy Holder, Buffy the Vampire Slayer 3 and Crusade

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Vampire.
Midnight liaisons. Velvet seduction. A tiny sting, and maidens—demure or tempestuous—find that as blood flows, minds dissolve together. Ineffable ecstasy. Militant optimism. Villainy redeemed through the cataclysm of pure love. Um, wait . . . Do I really write this stuff for a living?
– L.J. Smith, The Vampire Diaries

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Vampires will always fascinate us, because they live on the boundaries we rarely dare to cross, between worlds we try to keep separate. Human and wild. Past and present. Pleasure and pain. And most important–life and death. Whether attacked by crosses or critics, vampires will always rise again.
– Jeri Smith-Ready, “Thief,” Eternal and Bring on the Night

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Vampire: A living, a heroine, a chance to pursue my dream. Buffy, Angel, Spike, the Scooby gang. Joss Whedon, the master. Polidori, the first. Bram Stoker, the best. I owe them all.
– Jeanne Stein, Chosen

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A Vampire Haiku

The myths got it wrong
Vampires walk in the sunshine
Look in your mirror

Forget wooden stakes
Your ego is immortal
Bare your fangs, monster

Listen up, mortals
Bloodlust is human nature
We are the vampires.
– Jaye Wells, The Mage in Black

◊

And, because it seems only fair to include the dead in this Black Friday interview, a special response from the vampire master himself:

The vampire lives on, and cannot die by mere passing of the time; he can flourish when that he can fatten on the blood of the living. Even more, we have seen amongst us that he can even grow younger; that his vital faculties grow strenuous, and seem as though they refresh themselves when his special pabulum is plenty.
– Bram Stoker, Dracula (3)

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And a special audio treat in honor of the VAMPIRE, a link to David Tenant reading A Night With A Vampire for BBC4’s program A Book at Bedtime.

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There are few figures who have swept through modern literature as swiftly and effectively as the vampire. They are everywhere, taking different forms, and hiding among us as one of our kind. Lestat, Edward, Bill, Angel, Spike, Nosferatu, and Dracula – just to name a few – are fictional vampires who terrify, captivate, and entertain us. New vampires are born every day as young adult literature continues to embrace these seductive fiends.

Vampires evolved from traditional folklore as ugly, terrible, and generally male creatures.(1) Then came Geraldine, arguably the first literary vampire, born from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s imagination within his poem “Christabel,” published in the late 1700s. Lord Byron, so impressed by the poem, read it aloud upon several occasions, including the afternoon tea party in which a group of Romantic poets traded ghost stories. Coleridge’s poem inspired the group to engage in a “written competition of supernatural tales,”(2) resulting in the creation of two historically significant gothic tales: Mary Shelley’sFrankenstein and Polidori’s The Vampyre.

(1) Arthur Nethercot, The Road to Tryerniaine: A Study of the History, Background, and Purposes of Coleridge’s “Christabel”, (Westport: Greenwood Press, Publishers; 1939), 67-69.
(2) Arthur Nethercot, The Road to Tryerniaine: A Study of the History, Background, and Purposes of Coleridge’s “Christabel”, (Westport: Greenwood Press, Publishers; 1939), 20.
(3) Bram Stoker, Dracula, (New York: Barnes & Noble Books; 2003), 283.

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Review: Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Posted on November 22, 2010 by Erin Underwood

Authors: Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Reprint Ed: September 2010
ISBN-10: 0316077038
ISBN-13: 978-0316077033
Details: 592 pages | Trade Paperback | $9.99

Beautiful Creatures, by coauthors Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, is a gorgeously written southern gothic romance about two young lovers who refuse to let a family curse determine their fate. They soon learn that changing fate takes more than determination, and if they fail, they could lose more than just each other.

Ethan Wate has spent the last 16 years of his life pretending to fit in with the people of Gatlin, a small southern town where nothing happens and life never changes. At least that’s how life was before Lena Duchannes arrived. Not only is she the mysterious girl who has been haunting his dreams for weeks, but she’s also the niece of Macon Ravenwood, Gatlin’s most eccentric and reclusive citizen. Being an outsider and the teenage niece of the town shut-in, whose only means of transportation is a creepy black hearse, makes Lena less than welcome in her new community. Yet, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to this beautiful, strange girl who is hiding a dangerous secret.

Beautiful Creatures is a brilliantly crafted novel in which a captivating mystery unfolds piece by piece as Ethan and Lena dig into Gatlin’s past to thwart a curse that has plagued her family for generations. In the process, Ethan’s life changes forever when he learns that there is a much darker side to his sleepy hometown. Lines are drawn and forces, both social and magical, work toward splitting the two young lovers apart. With each new discovery, the thrills and dangers increase as he and Lena struggle against unforgiving locals, secretive relatives, and a curse that places everyone they love at the brink of destruction.

The story of these two star-crossed lovers is exquisitely told, drawing out their characters bit by bit with each new test of will, forcing them to make choices that send them headlong into a family feud that spans generations. The strength of this novel lies in its character development. Ethan and Lena easily carry the story, but the secondary characters are equally as strong and engaging, especially Macon Ravenwood who threatens to steal every scene in which he appears.

In a market driven by young adult paranormal romances that feature desperately beautiful girls who are protected by their stunningly handsome/dangerous boyfriends, Beautiful Creatures is a breath of fresh air. Not only does it take a sideways view of the paranormal romance by casting Ethan as the point of view character, but it also portrays him as an average guy with no special powers other than his unique connection to Lena. Compared to his literary peers, Ethan is a nice guy who falls for an girl who just happens to have an extraordinary gift.

Beautiful Creatures is a page-turner packed with southern mystery, style, and charm – not to mention enough twists and turns to keep even the savviest mystery reader on her toes. This is one of those books that you won’t want to put down even after you have read the last page. Luckily, Beautiful Darkness, the next book in the series, was released on October 12, 2010.

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