Category: Uncategorized

Discussion: Pet Peeves in Fiction

I have so many pet peeves about fiction because I read a lot.  Here are the ones I hate the most:

  • When authors write ‘utilize’ instead of ‘use’ every single time.  It doesn’t make you sound smarter, trust me.
  • Just bad grammar in general.  Not the deliberate kind I have on my blog (because it’s supposed to be informal) but just bad grammar out of ignorance in a published copy.
  • LOVE TRIANGLES.  Please, please, please, can we just agree to stop this travesty?  It’s so overdone that it makes me want to throw my Kindle at the wall whenever I see it.  There are more important things in life than “Which boy do I like best?”.

And this one isn’t the author’s fault (usually), but:

  • Bad formatting.  Even on NetGalley, which gives out ARCs, I expect to be able to read your book.  Some publishers just think they can download the text straight from a Word document (or whatever they use) to the .mobi format without any changes.  That results in things like totally unreadable text obscured by pictures, every single sentence being on a totally different line, random numbers and crap in the text and sometimes even parts of the text are totally unreadable because they’re supposed to be a different colour in the physical copy but light colours don’t translate well to the .mobi file.  I actually had to send a publisher a pretty annoyed note about the last one.  Please: format your book, even if it’s just an ARC.

Okay, rant over.  Now it’s your turn: what are some of your biggest pet peeves in fiction?  Is there a trope you just hate with the passion of a thousand fiery suns?  Or do you just hate when people don’t take the time to proofread properly?  Let me know in the comments below!

Lazy Sundays (And The Walking Dead)

Sundays for me are all about relaxing.  I work on Saturdays as well as the rest of the week, so Sundays are dedicated to frivolous things.  In short, I probably won’t be posting much on Sundays.

The main thing today is watching The Walking Dead.  I am so excited to see Carol and Beth together in the hospital there and I’m very curious about the title of the newest episode: “Consumed”.  There’s a bit of a rumour floating around that either Carol or Beth is going to die.  Personally I don’t want either to die, but at this point I’d be less broken up about Carol dying than Beth now that Beth is starting to get really awesome.  But that’s just me.

So what are you guys up to today?  Any thoughts on The Walking Dead?

Discussion: Forgotten Figures

As sort of a lead-up to my first real Forgotten Figures article on Monday or Tuesday, I thought we’d have a discussion about it.  Not the articles themselves, but the whole concept of obscure historical figures.

My idea with the series is, as I’ve said, to bring to light figures that are forgotten in mainstream history.  I still love Julius Caesar, Cleopatra and Charlemagne, but who can forget the accomplishments of Aurelian, Zenobia and Emperor Li Shih-min? Some of those names are far from obscure in the circles of history buffs, but they have been forgotten by most people.  As in, you could go up to a random person on the street, tell them the name and ask what they accomplished and most people would look at you blankly.  So basically, as far as I define it, it’s all about name recognition.

That’s why I chose to start on what will hopefully be a regular article series here on The Mad Reviewer.  I have a passion for history that I want to share and although it’s not necessarily the most book-related thing ever, many of these people are people I discovered either within books or people I’d love to see represented in fiction.  So if you’re an aspiring historical fiction writer, maybe you’ll find inspiration here in the weeks to come.

Enough preamble, though.  What I want to know is this: Who is your favourite historical figure that’s been forgotten by the mainstream media?  Why?

(And on a side note: Is there a particular figure you’d like to see me feature in Forgotten Figures?  I’m quite open to suggestions and I have the resources to mount at least a decent research effort into most eras, so please don’t hold back if you want to share your love of an obscure figure.)

Book Blast: Tales From Feyron by Diana L. Wicker

 

 

The Realm of Feyron has always been…
 
Publication Date: November 2, 2012
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy/Coming of Age

The Realm of Feyron has always been. It is the origin of all things magical, the axis point where all the worlds meet. Once, in days gone by, there were many gateways within the Temple of Pyli connecting the Worlds Beyond seeded with magic to their home. Now many gateways have flickered out, and Feyron weakens as the magic fades and the Guardians are lost.For the first time in over three hundred years a Dreamweaver has come of age and is tasked with contacting the Guardians. When she awakens in the night after a vision of her best friend lost and alone, injured in the snows at the top of the Crystal Mountains, she seeks out the Sacred Fire in the Temple in an attempt to call forth more information. A voice calls out from the fire, “Dreamweaver, you are summoned.” An image appears of an ancient path through the Mist Shrouded Forest leading to a hidden gate into the Crystal Caverns below the mountains. The Guardians have summoned her on a quest that will take her to the four realms of light within Feyron in search of answers and aid.

 

Publication Date: May 10, 2013
 
The Guardians have awakened after the Time of Sleep and returned to renew the magic with the clans of Faie. At the request of the Guardian, Lord Grypos, Keeper of Knowledge, the Master Scholar travels through the Outer Gateway with craftsmen and apprentices to coordinate the repairs of the once great oasis that houses the ancient archives of knowledge known as the Island in the Sands.
As the summer wanes and the oasis begins to return to its former glory, the Guardian calls the Master Scholar to the meditation room in the wee hours of the night to discuss a journey. In the fire an image flickers of the red desert sands speeding past, a land of grey beyond the desert, and a cavern of twilight behind an obsidian wall. “Arwyn and Shyamal are to go there for me to seek out that which was once mine.”
What starts as a seemingly simple journey becomes an adventure with life threatening consequences as the two are unexpectedly joined by their friends on a journey far from home beyond the realms of light in a realm that few within the clans of Faie knew could even be reached.
GoodReads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Smashwords | iBooks | Kobo
Publication Date: December 20, 2014
 
Old relics and have stories of their own. Sometimes they contain adventures waiting to be sparked and journeys bursting to begin.
The Box of Melodies was left with Clan Caris by Lady Oyisha, daughter of the mists, for care and keeping. A series of visions revealing the last desperate moments of a forgotten clan – the loss of their gateway to Feyron and the escape of a lone traveler holding the box – spurs a handful of adventuresome youth on a trek through the Lesser Forest where they inadvertently cause a ripple through the mists with unintended consequences.
A few of the youth find themselves on an unexpected journey to a World Beyond, lost in mist and shadow, where misunderstanding and suspicion lead to danger and darkness. Forgotten histories are discovered, clan secrets are revealed, and old alliances are remembered as the families of the lost seek to discover where the youth have been drawn by the memories within the Mists of Time.
GoodReads
Amazon | Barnes & Nobles | Smashwords | iBooks | Kobo

Diana lives in the balmy climate of the US south with her husband, two children, two dogs, two cats, and a cantakerous rabbit.  She enjoys reading, sewing (clothing, costuming, and experimental toy making), and RPG games. (She grew up with the old school paper/pencil style of gaming, but has transitioned happily to the highly interactive world of video games.)


The idea for Feyron started with a map, a place for her daughter to tell stories and live out storytelling role playing adventures with her friends.  The lore grew around the map, for every world needs lore if you are going to “live” there.  The idea for a series, Tales from Feyron, grew out of the lore, for if you’re going to invent a world, you may as well play there too.  The stories are continuing to grow through the various historical ages of Feyron and may yet “ripple” outwards to the Worlds Beyond touched by magic.

Website  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Goodreads

The Best and Worst of October 2014

I had another exhausting Halloween of scaring kids and then organizing a local dance, but overall I’d say October was pretty good.  The good weather is holding here in my corner of Saskatchewan and although work is getting slower, the construction industry never stops around here.  Add to the fact that The Walking Dead is back on and you’ve got the recipe for a pretty decent month in my life.

It was so good that I re-opened my review requests and have been getting some awesome submissions.  It also didn’t hurt my stats as I received 7,317 views including 4,778 unique views.  That’s pretty good considering September was awful, with 4,861 total views.

So what were the most popular posts this month?

1.  Why Girls Hate Game of Thrones—A Rebuttal

2.  How to Read 100 Pages in an Hour

3.  Best Seller by Martha Reynolds

4.  The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome

5.  The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton

The only new one on this list is my 3 star review of Best Seller by Martha Reynolds.  It’s nice to not only get extra views from a blog tour, it’s also nice to know that some authors actually care about their reviews and promote the heck out of them.  Even if they’re generally positive but not the most flattering ever.  I can definitely appreciate that.  None of the other top posts in October were a shocker, but it’s nice to see a new post reach the top 5.

So what were my worst posts this month?

1.  Beware, Princess Elizabeth by Carolyn Meyer

2.  The Eagles’ Brood by Jack Whyte

3.  Pretties by Scott Westerfeld

4.  Mistress of Rome by Kate Quinn

5.  Kane Chronicles: The Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan

As with my past bottom 5 lists, none of these are really a surprise and I don’t think many of them have made repeated appearances on the list.  Pretties by Scott Westerfeld has appeared before and that’s a shame because it’s a very good book.  However, the others haven’t been on before and they are older/less popular books in general so it’s not all that surprising.

So overall, my October was pretty good.  How was yours?