More anti-hero than hero, Crichton makes the all-star list more for his journey from squeaky clean good guy to interstellar, slightly insane, bad boy than any other trait.
Belinda Crawford
Bloodhound by Tamora Pierce
Bloodhound is the second book in the Beka Cooper series by Tamora Pierce. The story follows Beka, now a first-year Dog (aka police officer), as she and her partner Goodwin track down a group of colemongers (aka counterfeiters). Along the way she picks up a scent hound named Achoo, falls in love and saves the day.
What I liked and didn’t like
Bloodhound is written in a journal style. I haven’t read many books in this style but I find it very difficult to believe that someone could recount their day with as much detail as Beka does. Perhaps Pierce should have ditched the journal idea and just made it first person?
Beka is the many times great grandmother of George Cooper, a prominent character from The Song of the Lioness series. Generally these types of books, in which characters from previous novels make cameo appearances, drive me batty, but given that there’s a few hundred years between this book and the Alanna series, there wasn’t much chance of that happening.
Writing and the magic bullet
When I started writing for more than just the amusement it provides, I scoured the internet for tips and tricks from established writers, unconsciously searching for a magic bullet (pill, sock, cat or milkshake) to write my book for me. Unfortunately there isn’t one, and what’s more writing a novel (which is a gzillion times longer than a tweet) requires discipline, planning and months, if not years or decades, of your life. Plus you don’t get paid for it.
But while I didn’t find the magic bullet (pill, sock, cat or milkshake) I did find some good advice ((My favourite is in Jennifer Cruise’s post Hello, I’m Your New PRO Columnist: Reflections on the Columns I’m Not Going To Be Writing where she tells readers to forget what everyone else is doing and “go write your good book”. Sound advice. What are you waiting for?)), some of which has informed the way I write now.
After more than two years of trail, error and some fruitless Googling, here’s what works for me and a few tips that might work for you.
K’Ehleyr – The Targ that ate the canary
Targ – a boar-like creature with spikes along it’s back. Generally considered to be the Klingon equivalent of a cat.
At 5’9” with a forehead that looks like it could deflect a sledgehammer this all-star isn’t someone you’d like to encounter in a dark alley. Half-Klingon, half-human and a good deal more attractive than the former, K’Ehleyr gets to be the first shuttle off my all-star hero rank because it’s hard to go past a woman who can take the piss out of Worf ((She’s also my favourite Star Trek character, but only if you exclude Chris Pine as Captain Kirk.)).
Drink, Slay, Love by Sarah Beth Durst
Pearl is a sixteen-year-old vampire… fond of blood, allergic to sunlight, and mostly evil… until the night a sparkly unicorn stabs her through the heart with his horn. Oops.
If you like your vampires dark, Goth, not quite soulless and with just the tiniest hint of My Little Pony, then Drink, Slay, Love could be for you. It’s the third work from author Sarah Beth Durst and reads like the opening of a series (although I could find no news of a sequel).
What I liked and didn’t like
Pearl was the best part of the book, confident, arrogant, viewed humans as cattle yet remained vulnerable under all her bluster. It was almost a shame that she grew a conscience because it dulled her superior attitude, which was a lot of fun.
The development of her character was a strong yet subtle thread that ran through the book with none of the long, blah, blah, blah blocks of inner monologue that can pass for character development.
While the first two-thirds of the book were good, maybe even great, the final third did its best to fall in a heap.
Plot frustrations
I’m frustrated. I’m on the second re-working of the plot for my novel (the first re-working I consigned 17,000 words to the trash heap) and I’m still not entirely sure what the buggery I’m doing.
Rhinos & Trams
If you live in Melbourne you’ve probably seen the new (-ish) advertisements Yarra Trams is running.
Whoever came up with the skateboarding rhino idea should be congratulated. I think it’s a great mental image to get the message (don’t play chicken with trams) across. However, whoever came up with the print ad that’s been running lately (below) ought to be shot. It’s poorly worded and anything but memorable.