Ileandra’s May Indie eBook Review: Genesis (Shifter Nation, Book One) – & Mah Goals 26/05


Caught up with my reviews! Woo! Today is the last one for a while then June’s review, which I’ll post at the end of that month, will be Jordanna East’s ‘Blood In The Paint.’

Genesis covert art

R Huffman

Author: R Huffman
Title: Genesis
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Length: 23,110
ISBN: 9781311769732
‘Private Investigator Frank Soems is called to investigate when his twin godsons are kidnapped from the home of their adoptive parents. As Frank follows the twisty trail, his investigation will uncover the boys’ hidden past and lead to a shocking discovery.’


Werewolves. I luuuuuuuurve werewolves. Not as much as vampires – obviously – but I have a soft spot for these furry critters. An itch I don’t scratch often enough.

Cover:

three starsI like this. It isn’t one of my favourite covers but there are elements to it that really enjoy.
There’s certainly no doubt in my mind over what shelf I’d find this book on and the tone of the colours and the images fits the book. I’m just not so keen on the font choice or the lad behind the fence. Something about it detracts from the power of the overall cover. Possibly because the story is about the missing twins? Not sure.

Story:

three starsA PI learns that his godsons have been kidnapped and uses all of his old contacts, his wiles and brains to bring them home. Simultaneous to this, a mysterious young girl begins to question her existence and that of those around her.

It set up well. Particularly those first few chapters. I very much wanted to know what this girl was doing, who she was and how she got to be in this barren, clinical place. I was even interested in Frank (though something about the name ‘Frank’ just makes me think ‘old guy with a pot belly and a bald patch’) and his past. You don’t often find that sort of relationship in these books… godfather/godson I mean. It gives the story a very faint religious flavour (I thought it was only Christian denominations who employed godparents. Correct me if I’m wrong.) which, fortunately (as far as I’m concerned) didn’t impact the story in any way.

However…. towards the middle it seemed too… easy. Frank and his companions got where they wanted to be with no struggle. Things fell into place in a way that I wish my life would and allowed them to coast through the rest of the novella. Without giving anything away, how could he and his companions possibly get away so smoothly and easily if their cargo is so incredibly valuable? I just couldn’t make myself believe it.

Characters:

two starsI think the werewolves were the most interesting of the lot. Their genuine confusion really came across and felt like a good representation of what one might feel in their situation.
Frank and his ‘team of rescuers’ had a slight edge of ‘oh it’s that guy’ syndrome. Ex military/police type who keeps his toes submerged in the world he wants belonged to, thus giving him a handy set of contacts.
Even the twin boys seemed to accept their lot pretty easily, which, considering what happened to them after the kidnap doesn’t ring quite true. They’re young, yes, but that, to me, means that their reaction would be stronger than, perhaps, mine. As an adult one handles things different to a teenager.
That’s just my two cents.

Overall experience:

four starsA nice easy read. I think I gobbled this one up in a day and it was paced nicely to be able to do that; breaks in sensible places and chapters that didn’t stretch off into forever. Formatting was good as was the editing (why that’s such a big deal for me these days I don’t know :p) and I will, time permitting, follow up the rest of the series.
I’m hoping, since this first part of the ‘journey’ was so easy, that there will be more hardship to come. And also some ‘proper’ teeth-snapping, flesh-tearing werewolf action.

Final score:

three starsAverage across all scores is 3 stars.
Nice and easy.
It was my knee-jerk reaction to the piece (therefore comforting me in that this scoring system works well for what I’m trying to do) when I put it down and I stand by that.
I’ve not read very many werewolf books (not as many as I have vampire ones, anyway) but this one is certainly worth returning to. Yes, there were some things I might have changed or fiddled, but isn’t that always the way?
I’m going to wait until I have a chance to read the next one before I decide whether or not to abandon the series (trilogy?).


Nearly forgot this part of the post! Oops. Okay….

Since making the decision last week to start Walking The Razor’s edge I’ve been knocking out around 2,000 words a day. While this sounds great I’m not sure if the rest of the goals have suffered as a result, so, as ever, I’m going to go through my list a piece at a time.

Last Week

Edit my faerie flash fiction piece
Nope. Completely forgot about that. Oops!

Resubmit my sci-fi story Love Bytes to another competition (I got the reject notification on Friday, so it’s time to find another potential home for it)
Forgot this too. Oh dear. o.O

START WRITING WALKING THE RAZOR’S EDGE (WTRE)
Yes, as I said above, this is what I’ve been doing all week. As of this morning I’m 11k into the first draft. I’m thrilled with that level of output, but a bit disappointed that other things have suffered. It’s all about balance, right?

So… I’d better start fiddling with those scales.

This Week

  1. Edit my flash fiction piece
  2. Resubmit my sci-fi story Love Bytes to another competition.
  3. Continue working on WTRE, but only AFTER the other goals have been achieved

Haha. Writing like that should ensure that I get all three done without skimping.
Lovely.

How about you guys? It’s almost the end of the month, the start of June. Nearly half way through 2014 already. At the end of next month I’ll be assessing the year to date and adjusting my plans for the rest of the year. Are you working steadily towards your long and short term goals? Do any of yours need tweaking? Chat to me about it; putting your heads together is a great way to find answers and just see things from a different perspective. 🙂

Catch you next week! x
new ileandra signature,

Posted in Books, Ileandra's Posts, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Raven’s May Indie eBook Review: Mistress Maggie


cover art for Mistress Maggie

Joscelyn Anne Hayes

Author: Joscelyn Anne Hayes
Title: Mistress Maggie
Genre: Erotica
ISBN: 9781311379139
‘Welcome to a most unorthodox love story. A story containing romance, transgenderism, spirituality and yes, even S&M. Thomas sees Maggie O’Shea on a company website, not usually very interesting, until he realizes he can’t turn away. As he falls head over heels for this older woman nearly twice his age, we follow him on a long journey down a spiraling rabbit hole. And while he reveals his most private yearnings, we’re along for the ride as the ‘powers that be’ make good use of his soul, and provide him with not only an older lover, but a retired mistress as well. But no ordinary mistress, Maggie’s one in a million, and your first few paragraphs will fire up your spirit to want to help find her husband’s killer, and fall in love a young transgender man who needs her ‘special’ talents.’


Since reading so much of Tab Kimpton’s work I’ve been fascinated by LGBTQ issues, and have searched, quite deliberately for books that dabble in those ponds. I identify as bisexual myself, but I’m continually stunned by how little I know about the different facets of LGBTQ identity, and sexuality. It’s a massive hole in my knowledge that I’m not proud of.
The fact that this book featured trans characters within a kinky setting made it perfect. I wanted to see what someone else made of a subject that I’m slowly learning about.
…and read about sex of course.

Cover:

Two-Flame-Rating

Unfortunately, not one of the best covers in the world. The title text can be a bit tricky to read and that yellow is slightly garish. Though I can see the author name, the colour and font choice didn’t seem to fit the type of book. The images are nice, but there is a sense of one slapped on top of the other. There was so much scope for fun with this cover, unfortunately, for me, it didn’t achieve it.

Story:

Three-Flame-RatingA young man discovers his desire to dress in female clothing is not disgusting or sinful or weird and merely a reflection of who he is on the inside. While learning this fact about himself, he becomes besotted of an older woman high up in the chain of the firm in which he works. He spends a good portion of the book trying to win her attention and when he does his journey of discovery takes on a whole new dimension.
I like this as an idea, it’s very sweet and I spent quite a few moments throughout saying ‘awww.’
Unfortunately, that’s not what I’m looking for, necessarily, in a book like this.
I’m thrilled to say that it wasn’t just an excuse to cram a bunch of people together and make them bump genitals, but I do feel that the story was strong enough by itself without some of the later paranormal aspects.
Self discovery, sex, mystery, murder and investigation; all of these things were plenty and held my attention more than well enough to avoid the, for what of a better word, bizarre climax.

Characters:

Three-Flame-RatingThomas is a sweetheart and I believe him, to a point. The idea of his ‘obsession’ took on quickly enough that some of the sting is removed from the ending, but until that point I found myself wondering if he’d suffered from that same attachment complex that ducks do when they hatch. You know, when the latch onto the first living creature they see?
Maggie lacked something. I’m not sure what, but there was a spark lacking that, otherwise, would have lifted her off the page and made her fizz.

Overall experience:

Three-Flame-Rating

Clean formatting and only a few instances were I couldn’t quite figure out what was what. This is nothing that a quick line edit from someone in the biz couldn’t clean up. The book was a good length (any longer and it would have struggled) and I read it comfortably in the space of two days.
My only complaint is the difficulty in reading certainly sections of dialogue. Hinting at accents and/or regional dialects, but it really does get tedious trying to read them.

Final score:

Three-Flame-Rating

Final score 2.75… three fireballs.
As my first taste of a novel featuring a trans character I’m glad I read it. However it feels almost like this book tried to be too much at once; thriller, erotica, mystery. Staying with one of these would have made a shorter read but, I feel, a stronger read overall.

Raven's Signature In Black

Posted in Books, Raven's Posts, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Writing Process Blog Hop Pt1 – (& I Haz Planz – wc 22/05)


Good morning lovers. ^_^
Hope you’ve had a good week. Here in the UK (for those of you across the water) we’ve had some stella hot weather. I was pig-sweating all weekend and for the start of the week too. Now it’s getting grey, and muggy and I’m expecting hoping for some awesome thunderstorms to clear the air. They’ve been promised since Monday, but nothing but showers so far.

Ho hum.

We’ve been tagged for a blog hop! It’s been a while since we’ve done one of these and I’d like to thank Tom Slatin for tagging us. If you recall, he’s responsible for the prompts Ileandra used during the 80 Post Challenge. Since there’s two of us on this blog, we’re both going to have a go at the questions on the hop (since the answers are very different!). I also thought it would be a nice break from all those reviews we’ve been catching up on. :p

So… let’s get on with it.
My writing process… all linked to current projects, processes and methods.

What Am I Working On?
Right now, Slippers & Chains. It’s back from betas and I’m hammering out the last few kinks picked up by my wonderful readers before banging it off to Breathless Press. They asked to see the completed manuscript, if you recall, and several conversations with The Funk Master convinced me to focus on that and leave the Meeting Each Other series on hold for the time being.
So that’s what I did. Nearly there now; I’m on the home stretch. ^_^

How Does My Work Differ From Others of Its Genre?
It’s funny. That’s the main part. One of the recurring comments from my betas was that they regularly laughed out loud, even though they didn’t expect to. And yet they were still aroused/titillated as one might expect from a piece of erotica. That makes me very happy indeed.
I talked about this during the April A2Z as well, but my work also involves nods to safe sexual practises and varied (I hope) couplings and body types. I also try to normalise BDSM and the people who enjoy it; particularly in Slippers & Chains.

Why Do I Write What I Write?
A lot of the erotica I’ve read to date has been ‘perfect’ body types and very samey couples. BDSM or anything remotely removed from what is largely considered ‘normal’ is played up and made to be something far bigger than it should be. I try to get past that, and highlight what I believe about sex as a whole; if you enjoy it, it’s safe, and mutually consented to, do what the hell you want. So long as it’s legal. 😉
I want to read about the people I know, the experiences I’ve had. I don’t want a porn-style rendition of what people think is great sex.
It’s also important to me that erotica is a reflection of what happens in real life. Especially since porn is so false and damaging to general expectations. People have flab, and stretch marks, and less than huge cocks, saggy boobs. Not everyone orgasms instantly (or simultaneously), or at all. You get hair stuck in your mouth. You get cramps. You get bored. You get distracted by thinking about the washing up or what time you have to get up in the morning to take the kids to school. Your sheets get icky. Condoms break.
All these real things that I just don’t read about deserve a chance, because I honestly feel that people will respond to it. And so far, people have. So I must be doing something right. 😉

How Does Your Writing Process Work?
With far more structure and organisation than Ileandra’s does, that’s for sure.
My stories usually start with a single idea, or in the case of Slippers & Chains, a question (posed by The Funk Master); what would a traditional sitcom look like, if the focal characters happened to be in a strong BDSM relationship?
Then I forget about it for ages. Not on purpose, but usually because Da Shared Brain has been commandeered by Ileandra for a project of hers. But while that happens, I’m still working through it, building on the idea, or the question.

Then I write an outline.
This is normally just a line or two marking out how I want chapters to fall, but also to see how far the idea takes me. From this I can tell if the idea has enough mileage for a novel, or if it works better as a novella or short story.

Then I start writing. I love the first draft process. Letting go. Allowing myself to be a little bit rubbish if favour of getting the words down. Watching the characters take on life and run off to do their own thing, despite the neat one-line notes of my outline.

After that I let the draft sit. For anything above 10k I leave it for at least a month. I have to; it’s the only way to clear my head of the whole thing, meaning I can start editing with a fresh head.

When the wait has passed, I print the story and carry it around with me everywhere as I read it. I use this read to mark out large structural or continuity issues with a purple pen. Only when I’ve gone through the document once do I start to actually change things; this time with a green pen. I swap paragraphs around. Add them in. Remove them. Rewrite entire sections with the fresh knowledge of where the story is going to go at the front of my mind. I think that may be my favourite part of the editing process.

Putting all those scribble notes back into a digital form is a pain in the arse, but I use that to smooth off more of the rough edges as I go.

Then *phew!* I send the fresh file to my Kindle and, after a week, read it again. This time with a notebook to hand. Black pen this time. I go through the text like a reader, picking out sentences that clunk or instances of ‘WTF?’ brought on by poor character development. When that’s done, if there’s no major issues brought up it that ‘reader-read’ then I send it to betas.

…wow. Looking back at that, it’s no wonder I take so long getting anything done. But I hope the end result is worth it. I put a lot of time, energy and love into my stories, from the short, 7k babies of the Meeting Each Other series, to the 35k monster that is Slippers & Chains.

Tag People!
Thanks for reading, guys. I think my trick will be the same as Tom’s and I’ll tag one person from the recent comments on my posts and, come Monday, Ileandra will tag another. So… Martin, it’s over to you! No pressure to take part if you don’t fancy it, but if you do just link back here to let me know. Ta.


Goal tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiime!
Not a bad week. I’ve been spreading things out somewhat, since I have prep to do for my LARP in July, but Slippers & Chains is ticking along nicely.

Last Week

Get to work on those Slippers & Chains edits. Get through at least five chapters. Now… theoretically, this should be easy. I’ve done my edits, this is just me going through comments from betas. Nobody flagged anything major so I can pretty much deal with the small things, then go. *fingers crossed*
I think I’m a third of the way through and only a few issues here and there that I’ve sorted out. Two more weeks and I should be done!

This Week

  1. Keep hammering at those Slippers & Chains edits. My target is another five chapters; going through one a day is realistic and gives me space to keep going if I have the time.

  2. Find the name of that LGBTQ Literary Festival in Notts and book on. It’s in June (I think) so I need to hurry up and remember what it’s called, so I can make sure I have train tickets.

There. Yes, that should do the trick. Catch you all next week!

Raven's Signature In Black

Posted in Goals Posts *haha!*, Raven's Posts | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Competition Winner! (& Mah Goals – wc 19/05)


Oops. Well I suck. -_-
I promised the results of my competition on Saturday and just didn’t manage to get them sorted. Wah.
Never mind! I’m here now and I’d like to announce the winner!

First, thanks to everybody who entered the comp and shared news of it on Twitter and Facebook. I may well do another if the mood takes me, but the fact that people paid attention really warms me.

There is no long/short list for this competition (not quite enough entries for that). Just one clear winner from the entries received.
*drum roll*

The winner is:
Brittany Zelkovich
*throws confetti*

Well done, hon. Thanks for entering and your $10 Amazon voucher will be winging its way to you via lovely, jubbly email within the next 24 hours (y’know… when I figure out how the system works).

^_^

Meanwhile… here is the winning entry for your reading pleasure.

Mal looked in the mirror and winced. He’d turned thirty.
And it showed.
The bowler hat hid his shrinking hairline, and muscle had decayed into softer flesh. He ran a hand along his jaw, the stubble grating against his fingers. If it grew there’d be grays, so he shaved each morning.
Mel would be thirty.
“Comes with being a twin,” he mumbled. “Shared birthdays.”
A squeal of laughter stole his attention. He turned as Mayra ran past him and scooped up the toddler. Groaning, he kissed her cheek. His heart ached at the resemblance in the mirror.
Happy birthday, Melanie.

Again, thank you so much for spreading the word and entering, guys. It means a lot to me.
Brittany… enjoy your voucher and I hope you’ll enter again if/when I run another of these mini comps. 🙂


Having this goal list make such a difference to my working week. I never would have believed it a few years ago, but I crave desperately need direction and structure to be able to function. Yes, I hated my 9-5 job (in the end) but I did it and did it well. I knew what was expected of me, when and how it needed to be done. So I did.

This goal list is a lot like that.

Last Week

Look at outline brief for Walking The Razor’s Edge (WTRE) and decide when I’m going to start working on it)
I’m so excited I could burst! Getting back to these characters again, delving deeper into their stories, exploring their pasts and how that influences their entwined futures. Oooh, the buzz is there!

Check online and hard copy sources for competitions suitable to enter (for me and other members of Subs Club)
Eeerm… no. Not aside from the usual anyway. Those I did organise my submissions spreadsheet so I can actually tell which story has been where and how many times I’ve submitted it. Now I have more structure (YEY!) I can do a better job of getting subs out more quickly. I should always have at least two live submissions at any one time. I need to keep them rolling if I want to see results.

Write a 500 flash fiction piece
This is the only one I didn’t actually expect to manage it. I took inspiration from the Phoenix Writer’s homework prompt (‘away with the faeries’) and drew from the ideas in my 2011 NaNoWriMo Return to Arcadia (I really should update that page!). I like it as a piece of flash, and I’m hoping to build a collection of stories for this blog anyway, so that may be one of the ones which ends up here. We’ll see.

Send off newsletter to subscribers
Done, with the latest news and updates that you won’t get here. Remember, if you want to join up to that newsletter, just click here and follow the form through. I only send the newsletter once a month (on or around the 15th), so you won’t hear from me loads. And, when the time comes, I’ll use it to send freebies and notifications of upcoming releases (before they reach the general public on this blog).

So that was that. Well, I guess in that case I’d better keep moving with this week’s odds n sods.

This Week

  1. Edit my faerie flash fiction piece
  2. Resubmit my sci-fi story Love Bytes to another competition (I got the reject notification on Friday, so it’s time to find another potential home for it)
  3. START WRITING WALKING THE RAZOR’S EDGE (WTRE)

Yes… I can’t help it. ^_^ And I don’t think I should. I should take advantage of the excitement I feel and the gap while Silk Over Razor Blades is with beta readers. To take my mind off how people are receiving that, I should write the next one in the trilogy. It just makes sense!

So… wish me luck.

Oh! And before I forget, thank you all for the sensitive, well thought out and helpful comments for Saturday’s post. I kinda knew the answer to the question before I asked, but having other people confirm my thoughts just makes it easier to stand. I will be changing the name of SORB’s protagonist to something else. No idea what yet o.O but maybe something with less emotional weight to it will help me be mean to her. After all, authors being mean to their characters is what makes good stories. Everyone knows that. 😉

Catch you later!
new ileandra signature,

Posted in Goals Posts *haha!*, Ileandra's Posts | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

What’s In A Name? …Actually… Everything!


I’ve been thinking about this for a while, especially since SORB is at the front of my mind.

My name is Ileandra Young.

It’s a name I’ve used for my online presence for very many years and it’s the name I’ll be publishing under. It isn’t the name on my birth certificate, but it’s a name that’s very much became mine in the years I’ve used it.
I remember meeting some buddies that were previously only online buddies before that point. I was introduced as ‘Ileandra’ because that was my forum handle and, to this day, those lovely people still call me ‘Illy.’
I love it.
So so much.

However… it’s also the name of the female protagonist in my first novel.

Whaaaa?

I didn’t plan to do that. As I said; I like the name, so it seemed only natural (when I was 14) to use the same name for the character I loved so much. It stuck.
I have an online RPG character with the same name.
I also wrote the back story for that character a few years ago; the basis of a multi book, epic fantasy series (which I’m longing to get back to). Of course, she had the same name.
I know I can’t use the same name everywhere so the character in that epic fantasy has become D’nai T’keyah (which, though unusual to the ear, has a full explanation within the text). But even that was a hard decision to make.

Harder still is the decision I’m facing now; do I change the character’s name so it doesn’t match mine? Or, worse than that, do I change my name? Maybe publish under The Shared Brain’s name?
I have no idea how to make this decision, but these are some of the things I’m considering. This is in no way an exhaustive list.

Leaving Things As They Are:

Pros

  • I don’t have to acclimatise myself with a new name that can be disorienting and annoying
  • I already have an online presence as ‘Ileandra Young’ which can feed into the book
  • It gives the story a tiny edge of ‘is this real?’ which could work in it’s favour

Cons

  • It’s conceited (or at least it feels that way)
  • It could cause confusion with readers who don’t understand exactly what they’re reading
  • It might would look weird on the back cover blurb

Changing Things Up:

Pros

  • Completely gets rid of potential confusion
  • I could use the name elsewhere (though I probably wouldn’t as I’d have the same problem!)
  • The name remains my own rather than something that I have to share with a character

Cons:

  • I have to find new a new damn name!

This is very difficult. I know there must be some authors out there who have given characters the same names as themselves. Certainly minor characters. However my Google-Fu has failed me and I can think of only one author who has named their protagonist after themselves and that’s Darren Shan. Granted, his actual name is Darren O’Shaughnessy, but he writes under Darren Shan and that’s the name of his character. Beyond that… I got nothing.

I’m really struggling here.

I take great pride in being true to myself and what I want. For doing things slightly differently. But is this too much?

The fact that I can find only one author that has done the same thing must mean something, but deep inside I honestly feel that to change the name is to cheat myself. I’ve spent years thinking about this character and seeing her name in a book I can hold. It would be a mega blow to find, after all this time, that the name won’t work after.

A few months back, I posted a comment on an excellent blog post over at Kate’s place. If you’re unfamiliar with her blog, really do check it out; she’s a brilliant writer and with a great voice. But this post struck me for several reasons:

  1. This ‘Sheba’ woman is part of what’s killing indie authors (IMO)
  2. Pen names get a bad rap for all sorts of reasons
  3. It is often assumed that writers who write across genres will separate them with different names
  4. My pen name is nothing like that

The Brain came very close to changing her name to mine after our 18th birthday. Looking at passports, credit cards, letters and business cards would have felt wonderful with that name on the front.
I’ll explain why.

In the early days, when Silk Over Razor Blades was still called To Be A Teenage Vampire, I wasn’t happy. I wasn’t unhappy but I was 15, I didn’t have a boyfriend, I was tubby, I hated my hair and my friends kept me around because I made them look good. I didn’t go on dates, or smoke, or drink, or sleep around so I had no exciting stories to tell at parties (unless you counted the ones I made up) and a couple of years after that, my parents split. So I must have felt the tension in the house.

But… this character… this Ileandra Young in my stories had all sorts of cool things that I wanted. She had lots of friends, a doting boyfriend, cool clothes…. But more than that she had the qualities in character that I wished I had. She was funny. Kind. Loyal. Well loved. Smart. Opinionated without being a bitch. So, so many things.

Then the name Ileandra Young became a symbol of all the things I wanted. I thought… if I could write about it, I could take what I wanted from her experiences and bring them into my own life.

To some degree I have. I’m certainly far happier than I was back then. A lot of that is the result of growing up and understanding the difference between what’s important and what’s not. What I want and what I need.

The point is… with all that history behind it, the name Ileandra Young is so much more than a pen name and a hell of a lot more than the name of a character. And attaching it to this book (and future ones) is like the end of the game. The ribbon wrapped around the cake in the store window. The finishing touch.
It is (and would be) the proof that I finally achieved everything that I wanted to.

Phew…. Deep.

That’s my heart on the floor, pinned out for you to see. o.O Didn’t mean to do that; funny how things just get away from you.

Okay… let’s reel it back a bit.
Have you guys come across any protagonists named for their authors? There must be more than Darren out there, I refuse to believe otherwise. But I’m stuck. Fortunately,
together we are strong and combining your brain power with mine should help.

Come on… make me feel better here and tell me what you think? Would you ever consider using your name for a character in a book? Have you seen someone else do it? Would it confuse you to read a book written (for all intents and purposes) by the protagonist? Does it add to the tale or just disrupt the story for you?
Tell me, tell me, tell me!
new ileandra signature,

Posted in Ileandra's Posts, Silk Over Razor Blades | Tagged , , , , , | 14 Comments