My Interview with Carla J. Hanna

Carla J. HannaCarla J. Hanna is the self-published author of Starlet’s Web (and the rest of the Starlet series), a novel about a child actress who wants to get away from the Hollywood lifestyle of booze, drugs and sex.  Read on to see our discussion about media messages, Hollywood and the dark side of publishing.

1.  I’ve heard some interesting stories about the publishing industry from your comments here on the blog, but what would you say was your worst experience in the industry?

I was wiped out when I first learned that my coming-of-age fiction with romantic and spiritual elements had no commercial chance at being represented by a traditional publisher or widely read if I self-published. Every publishing expert told me that the teen coming-of-age market is too small to be profitable.

“Surely readers aren’t so shallow?” I protested. It wasn’t about what readers choose to read… Continue reading →

Mary, Queen of Scots: Queen Without a Country by Kathryn Lasky

Mary Queen of Scots(Cover picture courtesy of Open Library.)

July 12, 1554

I think hawking is one of the things that Francis and I do so well together.  Our instincts combined with those of the birds seem to fit perfectly when we are in the field.  We speak very little to one another but silently give the calls to the birds and perform our hand signals.  This afternoon the two of us went out with only Robin McClean as our guard.  And I thought as I took a rest on the ridge of a hill that there was something of perfect harmony amongst the three of us and the birds we had brought to fly.  If only all of life could be kept in the company of such good souls…

Mary Queen of Scots was a fascinating historical figure and I think that in some ways, Queen Without a Country does her justice.  On the other hand, objectively speaking, it wasn’t the best book I’ve ever read.  I’ll talk about the latter first.

Throughout the whole book, Kathryn Lasky seemed to be trying to get at something, hinting at some greater meaning.  Yet at the end of everything, all we see is a stereotypical, predictable ‘ending’ that shows Mary’s ingenuity but doesn’t leave the reader with that message.  It feels incomplete, partly because Kathryn Lasky was hinting at Mary reconciling with Queen Catherine, but she never really did.  Of course, being a diary of a woman who continued to live for many years afterward, you can’t expect it to be a perfectly wrapped up ending.  But there was still something…lacking.

Mary herself was an interesting character, but not exactly memorable.  Still, Kathryn Lasky did do Mary the historical figure justice with her portrayal of a headstrong, resourceful, intelligent young woman.  One thing I found odd, however, was the lack of mention about Mary’s religion.  Mary was relatively pious, spending the last few hours before her execution praying, but religion seems not to be a big feature in Queen Without a Country.  I’m not complaining, but it does seem a bit strange considering religion played such a big role in everyone’s daily lives in the 16th century.

Overall, Kathryn Lasky’s portrayal of Mary Queen of Scots was decent and her writing was okay, but nothing more.  There was really nothing to distinguish her book from the many others in The Royal Diaries.

I give this book 3.5/5 stars.

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*Only available as a used book.

Spotlight: The Return Man by V. M. Zito

Spotlight is my Saturday feature in which I highlight a book I’m looking forward to or really enjoyed.  This week, I want to highlight one of the best zombie books I’ve ever read: The Return Man by V. M. Zito.

The Return Man by V. M. Zito

The outbreak tore the U. S. in two.  The east remains a safe haven.  The west has become a ravaged wilderness.  They call it the evacuated states.

It is here that Henry Marco makes his living.  Hired by grieving relatives, he tracks down the dead and delivers peace.

Now Homeland Security wants Marco for a mission unlike any other.  He must return to California, where the apocalypse began.  Where a secret is hidden.  And where his own tragic past waits to punish him again.

But in the wastelands of America, you never know who—or what—is watching you…

If you love AMC’s The Walking Dead, you will absolutely love The Return Man.  Heck, if you love zombies, good characters, fast plots and conspiracies, you’ll love V. M. Zito’s debut novel.  Basically: You’ll probably love this book.

Not only is Marco a great character you can sympathize with because he stayed back in the Evacuated States to return his zombified wife, but Wu is also amazing.  Wu is kind of an ambiguous character because he’s not a villain, but he’s certainly not a hero in the traditional sense of the word.  I can’t decide whether I like Marco or Wu better, so their journey together from both points of view was a satisfying thrill ride.

The plot is fast and dramatic (but believable) and the zombies are terrifying.  No, they’re not ‘fast zombies’, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t scary.  Believe me, with the descriptions Zito gives of the zombies and all the gore they cause, you may lose your appetite.  The purpose of those graphic descriptions isn’t so much to gross out the reader as to bring home the point that in real life, a zombie apocalypse would be absolutely horrifying.

I wouldn’t recommend The Return Man for sensitive readers, but for everyone else: Go for it!

Thirst No. 1 by Christopher Pike

Thirst No. 1 by Christopher Pike(Cover picture courtesy of The Book on the Hill.)

Alisa has been in control of her urges for the five thousand years she has been a vampire.  She feeds but does not kill, and she lives her life on the fringe to maintain her secret.  But when her creator returns to hunt her, she must break her own rules in order to survive.

Her quest leads her to Ray.  He is the only person who can help her; he also has every reason to fear her.  Alisa must get closer to him to ensure her immortality.  But as she begins to fall in love with Ray, suddenly there is more at stake than her own life.

Oh no!  Christopher Pike had a female vampire as his main character, but guess what?  She was a real vampire.  Yes, a blood-sucking, cold-blooded killing machine who has almost no regrets about murdering people in order to survive.  Not only is Sita a real vampire, she has an amazing backstory and, in the context of urban fantasy vampires, it is a believable one.  No, it’s not a science origins vampire story, but it is interesting and Christopher Pike created an interesting world around it.

I think Sita is proof of Loren Estleman’s statement in his book on writing that characters don’t have to be sympathetic, but they have to be interesting.  She’s hardly sympathetic in the beginning, but at least she is interesting.  As she grows throughout the three books that make up Thirst No. 1 (which were originally published separately), we begin to see an almost human side of her.  Sita falls in love, confronts her past and begins to look to her future and even though it’s a slow character arc, it’s believable.

The plot moves along pretty quickly because the three books that make up the volume are less than 200 pages each.  However, being a book about real vampires, Thirst No. 1 is extremely gory.  I would not recommend it for young audiences, especially because of the gore and sexual content.  But despite gore that seems almost unnecessary, Thirst No. 1 is a good book that overall, I enjoyed.

I give this book 4/5 stars.

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Sondok: Princess of the Moon and Stars by Sheri Holman

Sondok Princess of the Moon and Stars by Sheri Holman(Cover picture courtesy of Fantastic Fiction.)

10th day of the 1st moon,

17th year of King Chinp’yong

It is the Hour of the Pig when the whole palace is settling down to sleep and only the watchmen and astronomers are awake.  I have not had a chance during the festival season to sit at my favourite stargazing spot.  It is here where I feel most alive.  Here inside the grand mystery of the stars…

How can I help myself, Grandmother?  During the day, everything is chaotic in Kumsong.  Men rush around the palace, merchants hawk their wares.  The city is a jumble of oxen and horses and children and slaves, all bellowing and laughing and tripping over one another to get where they are going.  But at night, all is still and peaceful.  I can look up into the heavens and find order…

My roots are here, Grandmother.  My roots are in the stars.

Say what you want about The Royal Diaries, but I’ve just discovered another awesome female ruler that I never knew existed before.  Sondok was the first woman in Eastern Asia to rule in her own right, having ascended the throne in 632 AD.  The ridiculous amount of sexism Sondok chronicles in her writings to her dead Grandmother as a girl are a sort of precursor to what she would face when she took the throne.

But of course that doesn’t deter her and although it takes a while, Sondok realizes her true potential—and it isn’t to be an obedient little female either.  Her struggle against the societal norms in Korea is fascinating and reveals a lot about not only the religious turmoil in the court at the time, but also the cultural turmoil.  The best part is that Sheri Holman presents all of this information without being too obvious about telling the reader.  Sondok describes the times and makes some observations, but Holman believes enough in the intelligence of the reader to let us make our own assumptions.

In contrast to some of the other Royal Diary books, there are actually interesting events going on at the time in Korea and Sondok is a part of them, not just an idle observer.  That makes the plot both fast and exciting and also makes Princess of the Moon and Stars one of my favourite books in the entire series.

I give this book 5/5 stars.

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*Only available as a used book.