Rosina Lippi

A Faint Cold Fear by Karin Slaughter

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Somehow or another Karin Slaughter never came into my radar, which is surprising as I like this kind of crime drama, a lot. So now I’ve read the first three in the Grant County series, and I feel compelled to write a short review.

Slaughter doesn’t coddle her characters. She throws believable stuff at them. Extreme extreme, but still within the realm of believable. Her people are complex, nuanced, and each of them handles the dog-awful stuff differently. There are a couple of characters who could be more developed, but then there are characters who have small roles but who are incredibly well drawn and vivid. Eddie, I’m looking at you.

In particular one character — Lena Adams — was interesting to me in this third novel because she’s been through hell, and there’s no telling if she’ll be able to pull herself out of the resulting self destructive spiral. I thought her development was handled really well, and then out of left field: a twist I never saw coming. Now I am really wondering how Slaughter is going to handle this in the rest of the series. She’s not afraid to do bad, bad things to her characters but she’s also making things challenging for herself. Which is brave, and promising both.

Warning: not for the faint of heart.

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I had an email today from Judith:

Please write a book about Cora Munro from her childhood to her meeting and marrying Daniel Hawkeye Bonner, and a separate book telling  Daniel’s story from infancy up to and marrying Cora. Please !Please! Please!

People often ask about prequels to the Wilderness books, but Judith’s request was more detailed than most. And very heartfelt. I do appreciate such enthusiasm and encouragement, but the truth is, these stories just are not in my head.  With a lot of work I might be able to get Cora’s life story down, but Nathaniel was raised by Mahicans. That means years of research, or faking it. And I can’t fake it. I wish I could, my life would be easier.

I do take reader concerns and wishes to heart, but this is not something I can do. Regretfully.

Scrivener is software developed specifically for writers. I started using it in 2007 (that is, when it first launched), and I’ve upgraded as the software evolved. I’ve stuck with it so long because it does some important things really beautifully.

There’s no better way to gather and organize the kind of complex research material that I use writing historical fiction. If you’ve read any of my Sara Donati novels, you may have a sense of how much I get into, from Jamaica sugar trains to 18th century refining furnaces to battlefields outside New Orleans and commercial greenhouses in 1880s New Jersey. So this I have always loved about Scrivener, the fact that I can keep a lot of diverse material close at hand and look through it without leaving the manuscript aside.

However. I’ve written five+ novels starting out with Scrivener and about a quarter of the way through, I’ve had to give up and transfer over to Word. And here’s the reason.

Scrivener prides itself on being flexible enough to meet the idiosyncratic needs of every writer. To achieve this end, there is a  ‘compile’ process. I say to Scrivener, Hey, I need to print out chapters 1 through 20 in draft form to pass on to a reader. Could you pull that together, simple page numbers, chapter numbers, etc?

In theory this is simple. In fact, it is probably simple in most cases. But in my case it’s not, and despite  more than five years of trying to get an upper hand on the compile process, I now declare myself defeated.

On the surface it seems straight forward. I have

(1) front material including title page, character lists, timelines, map legends (not the map itself), author’s note, dedication, epigraph

(2) a prologue

(3) 50+ chapters divided into Part I, Part II, Part III

The page numbering needs to start after the title page, and stop before the Prologue. Then start up again with ’1′ at  the prologue, and continue, not showing up on the “Part I” “Part II” pages. The chapters need to be numbered, but not the prologue.

There is a lot of documentation to help the writer set up the compile process to get what s/he needs, and I have read it all. I have also bought a ‘dummies’ type guide and read that, and I’ve spent a lot of time reading on the user forum. But no matter what I do, I can never get the manuscript to print out in plain draft form (that is, no fancy formatting) with the numbering handled correctly.

I tell myself, eh so what. So you’ll have to do a little extra work when you export the draft. But what happens is, I get completely distracted by the process of numbering pages and chapters, and I get derailed for at least one day. Sometimes more. That is, Scrivener is supposed to make the writing process more streamlined, but in my case, it’s disruptive.

No doubt a lot of people will tell me that I’m being computer illiterate or phobic, but anybody who knows me knows that I am very comfortable with all kinds of software and web machinations. I’m not dumb. I can handle Photoshop and InDesign and a lot of other not-simple software programs with a decent level of proficiency. I did in fact post on the user forum about this larger issue. I did so very carefully and politely, but I got no constructive responses. At this point I should point out that Scrivener is not free. The mac version costs $45, and while there is a huge and active forum, it’s staffed by volunteers who have lives beyond helping hapless writers number pages.

If you search you’ll see that Scrivener has a great reputation. I have come across only one review that mentions the issues that frustrate me:

So Scrivener stops supporting publisher workflow once you have submitted the manuscript. And arguably it stops an hour before then, because figuring out how to modify the output format generated by the Scrivener “Compile” menu option is a black art … I found it easier to slurp the resulting Word document into LibreOffice for final tidying up and reformatting before I submitted it. Scrivener doesn’t support Word’s paragraph style mechanism as far as I can tell; it simply emits styled text. So it’s output isn’t a direct product you can feed into an unattended turnkey pre-press package: you’ll still have to pay someone to drive InDesign for you. [emphasis added]

So I have to leave Scrivener behind. I’m not happy about it, but I just cannot spend anymore time fiddling with the complexities of the compile process.  It seems to me that the software developer has lost sight of a writer’s larger goals and is too enamored of  technology for technology’s sake, but I can’t follow that lead.

If you have software you use that you like that allows you to write and keep track of your research at the same time AND you work on a mac, please tell me about it. I’ll have to do some serious window shopping and trying-out before I decide how to proceed and how much time I’m willing to put into the learning curve. Thoughts? And be nice.

I posted this on facebook and got a lot of good responses, but I’m going to try here as well. The scenario is this: one character tells another character that there’s a list of about ten phrases he can say in fifty different languages or dialects of languages. She doesn’t believe him, and challenges him. The sentence she chooses (of the ones on his list) is “Why did you kill your wife?”

Eventually you’ll find out what I’m doing with this.

So I need to have this sentence in every possible European and eastern European language, but here’s the important part: I can’t use school-room French or Swedish or whatever. I need vernacular, colloquial and even rude translations. Below are some of the suggestions I got through facebook (I had lots of information on Polish, Russian, etc., but I couldn’t get the software to deal with the Cyrillic alphabet). As you’ll see, some people were very specific about the geographic variety of the language in question, or about the colloquialisms. That information is  really useful.

And I really, really need different regional varieties of Italian. Sicilian, Calabrese, Neopolitan, Roman, any anything else. [update: Stephanie really delivered on this, but I'm always happy to hear more. Thanks, Stephanie!]

Examples:

Litany

Dear Rosina,

I have just finished your book The Endless Forest. I must admit it was with considerable trepidation I began to read the epilogue and could quickly see the direction we were headed. I had suspected such an ending was coming but I am devastated all the same. Please, I beg you, tell me you will be starting a new series along the same tenor as the Bonner series!  I have enjoyed this family so
much and your storytelling I am hoping this is not the end of this genre o writing for you.

Yours truly,
A grieving fan

Dear Deanna:

I hate to think of you grieving, but on the other hand I am glad to know that the Wilderness series means so much to you. I can tell you that the novel I’m working on is about some of the Bonner grandchildren The first novel in what I hope is a trilogy is set in Manhattan in 1883. Its tentative title is The Gilded Hour.

Right now the wondrous Jill (my agent) has one offer from a publisher and is talking to other houses, as well, so I can be reservedly optimistic in saying that GH will in fact see the light of day. But publishers are far harder to engage these days, so there is still the possibility it might not happen.

If you are really interested in following along as a couple of Nathaniel’s and Elizabeth’s grandchildren make their way, please leave a comment. You never know what little bits of information will make publishers happy.

I love all things electronic, but when it comes to buying and selling books on the internet I see room for improvement. To be fair, that improvement is coming along nicely. In most areas.

I’ll demonstrate with (what else?) Pride & Prejudice. There must be a couple hundred editions of P&P in English alone. Poorly done editions, leather-bound editions (and sometimes those two things aren’t mutually exclusive), editions on paper so cheap it makes your fingers itch just to turn the page, critical editions (put together by academics with special care to detail and authenticity), abbreviated and illustrated and annotated editions. Most people don’t realize how different editions can be, or that one might be better than another. If you’ve read one copy of Pride & Prejudice you’ve read them all, is the general belief. This is a widely held misconception, and one that technology is not doing anything to rectify. Just the opposite.

Before Amazon  if you wanted a specific P&P edition (say, with illustrations by a particular artist, or edited by a particular Austen specialist) you could usually track it down, sometimes easily and sometimes not so. In the present day finding and buying books is infinitely easier, but distinguishing one edition from another is far harder, and sometimes almost impossible.

Consider a few of the numerous editions of P&P. The one on the left is the Norton Critical edition that’s currently in print, which is most likely the edition you would  be asked to read in a serious advanced literature course. They used the original 1813 edition for the text, and it includes biographies of Austen by members of her family and specialists, as well as Austen’s letters, samples of her early writing, and tons of other bits and pieces.  Note there’s another Norton Critical edition with a lovely teal cover, which happens to be out of print — but even if you found it for two bucks on a sale table, you’d be buying something different than the edition above. But how could you know that? Aside from comparing them side by side (books in hand), you’d be hard pressed to figure it out.

If this isn’t complicated enough, consider the Cambridge University Press edition, below. Note the following things: the name of the editor, the ISBN number, the fact that it is 622 pages long (the Norton Critical edition is 423 pages) and the whopping big price tag. The description doesn’t go into as much detail as the Norton edition. So which one is better, truer to the original, with better notes and annotations and essays? The page count and the price tag on the Cambridge edition might influence you. Your Aunt Ruth’s birthday is coming up. She is a Janite of the first order and she would want everything there is to know, so you spring for the expensive version.

Or you try to. Because this is where the real problems start, when you toddle off to Amazon to find a copy of the expensive CUP edition. It comes up without a hitch (as seen here), same cover, same title, same editor. And look at the huge discount…. even better, on Amazon Marketplace there are other copies for sale, for less than twenty bucks, even.

Remember that old chestnut about things too good to be true?

Have a closer look at the pricing information.  What should jump out at you is that there’s a kindle edition. Really? A kindle edition of the 600+ page Cambridge University Press version, for less than a dollar?

The confusion stems from Amazon’s misleading layout. They show you prices not just for the CUP edition,  but for all editions.  The Norton editions, Penguin, and every crappy edition ever put out by Barnes & Noble (Get five classic novels for ten bucks!). You don’t realize this, and money is money, and who are you to turn down a deal? You order a copy that’s priced at $25 and sit back to wait.

Now, if you took the time to follow the links you’d see that what you just ordered is not the CUP edition you wanted. But probably you didn’t take the time — why would you? So when the package comes you are not going to be happy. I would like to tell you that the bad news ends here, but there’s another wrinkle, one you wouldn’t find out about it until too late — unless you read through the reviews before you ordered.

A very kind reviewer (who calls him/herself Kiwi) went to the trouble to explain why you have to be careful ordering this book, even if you order the full priced version from up top. You can read the whole review here, but here’s the abbreviated version:

Check the Publisher carefully before you place your order because….,

One of the versions listed is published by “General Books LLC.” Another reader complained about the tiny and almost unreadable font – you probably bought the version published by General Books LLC – and here’s the reason.General Books LLC is an imprint of VDM Publishing, (google them and take a look at the Wikipedia article on them) and they specialise in publishing books that are free of copyright without doing any editing or quality control. [...]

So what you’re getting if you buy the version published by General Books LLC is a scanned in, unedited, low quality [...] unindexed / No table of contents book at a higher price than many of the good quality imprints available. Basically, VDM Publishing is flooding Amazon with these low quality prints (450,000 of them are listed now) publisher.

and, unfortunately, many of them have the reviews associated with better quality imprints associated with them. The product description is insufficient for the buyer that’s not aware of thisTotally unethical marketing.

‘Buyer beware’ doesn’t really say it strongly enough.

There are book sites that do an excellent job of distinguishing between editions. LibraryThing really works hard on this, but they don’t sell books; and they aren’t worried about a profit. They are concerned with compiling the best, most complete information, book by book, for people who care a lot about books.

Where do ebooks fit into this whole picture? I’ll tackle that question sometime soon.

I’ve been working on this post on and off for a long time, and finally decided to post it today. I finished the corporate taxes, and this is my reward. Really. It’s the INTJ in me, I can’t help it.

Hopeless by Colleen Hoover

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

There are so many people taking advantage of the possibility of self publication through Amazon that it would be impossible to read even a fraction of the novels that are now seeing the light of day. It’s also true that the majority of those novels are less than ready for prime time. But there are some great novels, as well, and this one took me by surprise.

I thought this would be one of the many young adult love-struck dismayed-by-love will-it-ever-work-out novels, and in fact, I have to admit that that impression stayed with me for until the half-way mark. Who is that boy? Why is he looking at me? He’s got a reputation but he’s so cute. What to do?

And more of the same. Sweet? Yes. Too sweet? Some may think so. Not badly written, mind you, but predictable. Nothing to set it apart … until the author turned on the plot.

I have a lot of experience with fiction — not just reading it, but writing it and publishing it, as well. And teaching it. It’s pretty rare that I don’t see a plot device in the offing, but that’s what happened here. I was truly surprised by the twist in the plot, and it was a good surprise.

The thing is, it takes a long time to get to that twist, almost too long. I might have given up before I got there, if I had had something else to read and if insomnia hadn’t kept me turning the page.

The other problem, and it’s an understandable one for somebody who hasn’t been writing fiction for a long time, is the inclination to make everything work without seams. That is, it all fits together too neatly. What happened to one person happened to other people, and it all came together in a way that feels at least a little contrived. Then it all gets resolved in a way that’s a little too quick and clean and convenient.

I’m not going to be more specific here because I really don’t want to give anything at all away, but if you’ve read it, you will almost certainly know what I’m talking about.

If you haven’t read it and you like relationship stories that veer off into the unexpected, then you will probably like this. I certainly did. Here’s the proof: I’ve given it four stars, despite the flaws, because it’s better than the three star (or even two star) story I was sure it was going to be for a long time.



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Pardon me while I melt down.

If you’ve read Homestead or know anything about it, you will also know that there is nothing Heidi-like about it. Not a thing. But today I discovered that the Hebrew language edition has a Heidi cover. Yes, it’s true. And here’s the proof.

[It's up and available here.]

After a lot of fussing (OCD is a life-long companion, like living with Felix and if you don’t know who that is, never mind) I have edited Homestead for publication as an ebook with Kindle. It should go live sometime tomorrow and at that point I’ll post the link here. In the meantime, here’s the cover.

Lots of good news:

1. I’ve slightly revised most of the chapters, which makes me happy to get rid of little niggles and clarify some things.

2. I’ve added illustrations and photos, as well as a map. I may add more, if the response is positive. And if I do, anyone who has already purchased Homestead/Kindle can download it again at no additional cost.

3. I’ve moved the clan charts to the front of the book, for those people who needed them but didn’t think to look in the appendix. If there’s any complain about Homestead it usually has to do with the complicated relationships between the characters, and I’m hoping easy access to the clan charts will solve this problem.

4. It’s priced at 4.99, and there will be at least one “download for free” promotion day in the next week. Check back here or on my FaceBook page for that announcement.

And two requests:

1. Reviews are very important on Amazon, as you are probably aware, in terms of sales. Homestead has a lot of really excellent critical reviews from big places, but not so many personal reviews. If you have read it and liked it and have a moment to post a short review, I would very much appreciate the support.

2. Please spread the word. Oh and, if you know of a good marketing strategy that doesn’t cost money, please leave me a note. I’d love to hear about it.