Review: BURTON & SWINBURNE IN THE STRANGE AFFAIR OF SPRING HEELED JACK by Mark Hodder

To be completely honest, I wanted to read this book from the moment I laid eyes on the cover.  Once I read the cover blurb, I was sold.  The book is even more gorgeous in person.  Pyr really did a great job with the packaging.

But lest I be accused of solely judging a book by its cover, in my case, the contents lived up to the packaging.  Burton & Swinburne in The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack is at once Victorian Steampunk, Pulp Mystery, Alternate History and Science Fiction that is complexly plotted and extremely entertaining.


The story begins in Victorian England circa 1861 and sets the scene with the palpable grime and poverty one would expect from the era and infuses it with a mix of steampunk inventions, courtesy of the Technologists.  In addition, the Eugenicists have altered animals to perform specific tasks.  My favorite of these were the messenger parakeets who deliver and recite verbal messages interspersed with swearing.

The story is framed partially by the political factions of the aforementioned Technologists, who want to advance society through technological means and the Libertines who wish to stave off such advancement by protesting through the arts as they view this type of progress as detrimental to the core of society.  Then there are the Rakes who have taken the counter-culture views of the Libertines to the extreme and wish to be completely liberated from any sort of morality, social code or limitation and are influenced in part by the idea of the seemingly unconstrained legendary figure of Spring Heeled Jack.

The story begins with the protagonist, Sir Richard Francis Burton, ready to verbally spar at a public engagement with his rival and former colleague, John Speke.  Shortly before Burton is to take the stage, he is informed of Speke's attempted suicide, for which Burton is the prime suspect.  But once Speke is kidnapped from his apparent deathbed, Burton is drawn into the investigation and is awarded a commission from the Prime Minister on behalf of monarchy as a special agent to the crown. 

As mentioned earlier, The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack is part alternate history with the likes of Charles Darwin, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Oscar Wilde and Florence Nightengale making appearances as characters that are plausible in their new guises if you turn the lens of life a click to the left or right.  Given the alternate path, their responses to life as it is presented are not unbelievable.  The author also uses the aspect of time travel, a plot device that people seem to be extremely opinionated about.  I didn't have a problem with this and I like how he used the trope to not only illustrate character, but also as a window to varying perspective on certain key events. 

The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack is richly detailed, complex and exciting.  The turns the story take not expected.  The choices that the characters make are not necessarily what you want to happen, the right thing to do or neat and tidy.  I like this.  I also think that some of the hero's decisions will come back to haunt him at some point in the future.

Burton & Swinburne and the Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack was an excellent book and I eagerly await the sequel:  The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man due in March, 2011.

Mark Hodder's blog:  http://markhodder.posterous.com/


Coming Soon:  Exploring the Gaslamp subgenre and a review of The Iron Duke by Meljean Brook.  

Haunted Gingerbread House Check-In

Have you started on your entry for the Haunted Gingerbread House Contest? I bought all my supplies last week, and this week I'll be baking and icing.

And look -- Rachel Vincent's running a contest, too! Now you have more chances to win! I can't wait to see what she bakes up this year!

I know hers will be better than mine. I wasn't kidding about my failed previous attempts. The last one I made fell down, so I set up a skeleton to look like a demolition project:

See the piece missing from the roof? And the broken corner that was "glued" back together? The gingerbread came out very soft. But I love the evil grin on the skeleton in the bulldozer and the look of fright on the skeleton on the bicycle at the back.

Here's hoping this year's house turns out better!

Is Urban Fantasy Dead?

A quick look around the Internet and one might start think interest in Urban Fantasy has dwindled despite July having been declared UF month by so many blogs. August brought us the news of Dorchester going to e-books and print-on-demand, which would seem to be a move to save money. Does that mean UF and its sister genre, paranormal romance, are not selling as well as they used to? September not only brought us the end of Rachel Caine's popular Weather Warden series, but also the end of Rachel Vincent's Shifters series. Both Rachels write Young Adult UF. Maybe YA UF is selling better than adult UF? It would seem to be the case with so many authors scrambling to start up YA UF series. What is going on with UF? At this rate, will it still be here for winter solstice?

A few years ago when UF became hugely popular and the buzz word for the blogosphere, there were nay-sayers who were adament UF was merely a passing trend. Are they right? Has the bubble burst?

I decided to go to the sources. In this multi-part series, I ventured to find out the state of UF from the authors themselves, agents, and UF-loving bloggers.

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PART 1 -- RACHEL AND RACHEL ON "THE END"

So what led to your decision to end the series? Did you always have a finite ending in mind?
[Rachel Caine's Weather Warden series began with ILL WIND, published in December 2003. Rachel Vincent's Shifters series began with STRAY, published June 2007.]

RC: It's not really possible to have a finite ending in mind for a series that keeps getting renewed by the publisher ... I thought it would end at three, then at six. But I really felt that nine books was as far as I wanted to take it. There's a fatigue factor on books that have such a high punishment factor for the characters -- both for the writer, and for the readers. So when I started Book 7, I knew this was the last 3-book cycle. 

RV: First, let me make it clear that the Shifters series was not cancelled. I decided it would work best in six books back when I wrote Rogue and started mapping out the entire series arc. And when I was doing edits on Alpha, the last book, my editor asked me to leave an opening for a possible spinoff later on (though I’m not actively pursuing that option right now). So I don’t think you could really point to the end of the Shifters series as one of the signs of the Urban Fantasy Endgame—although I do like that image in my head. ;)

To actually answer your question, I decided years ago that I would end the Shifters series at the logical conclusion point—when Faythe’s story is over—rather than drag it out past its prime just because the books are still selling. I want Faythe to out with a bang, not the proverbial whimper. ;)

Do you have a planned ending for your YA series? 
[The first book of Rachel Caine's Morganville Vampire series began with GLASS HOUSES, published October 2006. To date, 8 books have been published with book 9, GHOST TOWN due to hit shelves in hardcover October 26, 2010. Vincent's Soul Screamer series began August 2009 with MY SOUL TO TAKE. The fourth book of the series, MY SOUL TO STEAL is scheduled for release January 2011.]

RC: Not specifically. Morganville is odd, because it's really as much about the town as the characters, and short of destroying the town (a la Sunnydale in the Buffy series!) I don't really know what an ending would look like. I plan to have a natural stopping point at Book 12, just in case, though. No cliffhanger. Promise.

RV: No. Unlike the Shifters books, the Soul Screamers series is open-ended. I’ll keep writing them as long as there’s interest from readers and my publisher. The difference between the two series for me is that the Soul Screamers world is much larger than Faythe’s Shifters world, and because it’s populated with many, many more species of monsters/characters—plus that whole Netherworld alternate dimension—there are many more possibilities for story arcs. I have tons of ideas for Kaylee and her world, including a possible spin-off (2 options for that). The Soul Screamers books are more episodic than the Shifters books, meaning that they can be read as stand-alones (though you’d miss character development), whereas the Shifters books need to be read in order (at least after Rogue) to fully understand the story and the world. 

I read on your website that you are working on another series. Will this new story have "urban fantasy" elements? 
[The first book of Caine's Outcast Season was published February 2009, with annual releases scheduled every February. Vincent's new series is not scheduled yet.]

RC: I would definitely classify Outcast Season as UF - it's set in the same world as the Weather Warden series, and Cassiel is definitely kick-ass, although sometimes not fitting into the mold of a heroine. The plot does mainly focus on action, and yes, there is that pesky romantic subplot, too (although Cassiel's defining characteristic is her ruthlessness, so ... hmmm.)
.

RV: I honestly don’t know yet. I won’t actually start the first book in this new series until October, and because it’s a new series, with a new world and new characters, I don’t know precisely how everything’s going to line up. I will say, though, that the books in this series will not all have the same narrator, though I hope to be able to revisit narrators (similar to how Kelley Armstrong, and I believe Yasmine Galenorn do) if the series is extended.

Or will your plot focus more on the romance?

RC: I would say that Outcast Season is more purely UF than romance, although there's a strong romantic component. 
.
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RV: It will probably have a stronger romance focus than the early Shifters books did, but probably not enough to qualify as a traditional romance novel. I can’t see myself writing a book in which the action and plot conflict are overwhelmed by the love story. That’s just not the way I think. Though for the record, the last half of the Shifters series has a very strong romance subplot.

What originally attracted you to urban fantasy?

RC: I hate to say it, but I was writing UF before it had a name, and my books weren't selling at that time (although hopefully, also, I've become a better writer!). I've always enjoyed writing contemporary settings more than full-on fantasy worlds, but at the same time, I always wanted to sprinkle in unreality a bit, too. This changed from "horror" to "slipstream" to "magical realism" to "urban fantasy," which finally seemed to get a popular audience. But I can't really say I was doing anything very different, except that I did change to a female main character.

RV: Possibility. The same thing that attracts me to everything I like in life. I love the freedom that urban fantasy gives a writer. Anything can happen. While as a writer, I am restricted to what I can make the reader believe, I’m not restricted by the laws of nature as we know them in the real world. Anything goes. ;)

I don’t see urban fantasy and paranormal romance as adversaries. I see them as partners. They attract many, many of the same readers, and a boom in one subgenre can only positively affect the other.

---

Many thanks to both Rachels for taking time out of their busy schedules for this interview.

To find out more about Rachel Caine's books, please visit her website.
To find out more about Rachel Vincent's books, please visit her website.

I for one am glad to hear both Rachel Caine and Rachel Vincent haven't ditched urban fantasy, and I'm looking forward to fresh series from both. So, that leaves me wondering--

WHERE HAS ALL THE URBAN FANTASY GONE? -- Stay tuned for Part 2 of this series.

Review: HUNGER by Jackie Morse Kessler

When I was thirteen I had a teacher keep me after class to ask me if I was anorexic. Mortified, I tried to laugh it off and swear to her I wasn't. Whether I managed to convince her or not, I don't know, but she didn't ask me again. The moment made a lasting impression on me, however. I wondered what prompted her to ask. I became self-conscious of what I was eating, worried I was being watched. Was I too thin? Not eating enough? Eating too much? Eating the wrong foods? The right foods? If I didn't have an eating problem before that moment, I sure did after. I was obsessed.

I mention all this because I could be a little biased.

When I heard about the first book of Jackie Morse Kessler's new YA series, in which the main character suffers from anorexia nervosa and yet becomes Famine, one of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, I was intrigued. How could anyone who refused food become someone with the power to take food away? How would she deal with that?

When HUNGER opens, the main character, Lisabeth (Lisa) Lewis, is sitting on her bed staring at the set of Scales just given to her, which interrupted her attempted suicide by pill overdose. The pills get swept aside, and Lisa goes to sleep. The next day she thinks it was all a dream. Except for the wanting to die part. She remembers that. She tells her new best friend Tammy about her dream, while they make a batch of cookies. Tammy, we learn is bulimic and an avid supporter of Lisa being anorexic. We also learn Lisa's mom is never around, and her dad is a workaholic.

Lisa sees a black horse standing in the yard. No one else sees it. Then she sees the Scales on the kitchen table. She thinks she's going crazy, but dismisses the thought and carries on with her day.

She goes out on a date with her boyfriend. They bicker, and we see more of Lisa's disorder and how it's affected her relationships and personality. And how her new powers will manifest themselves. While on her date, she accidentally turns her food to ash. Then she makes it disappear altogether. 

Death, another of the Horsemen, comes to meet Lisa, to try to convince her of what she is, who she has become. She doesn't believe him. Not until she accidentally induces hunger-fuelled rage in a restaurant full of people.

The rest of the book becomes more about Lisa coming to terms with being anorexic, than about Lisa becoming Famine, the Horseman of the Apocalypse. And yet, the anorexic issue is not really dealt with either. It's not preachy, by any means. In fact, the story skims over being anorexic, over being Famine, over being a teenager, over pretty much everything. There's not enough to emotionally invest in the story or a character. We get just a nibble about a character, a drop of the story, and then the plot moves on.

The problems with this book start right from the first page. We don't get to see the suicide attempt or any of the events that lead up to it. We don't even get to see the Scales being handed to Lisa, except by flashback. While the flashback and the chronology of the story events are handled well, we should have seen these scenes unfold first-hand since they are pivotal moments in Lisa's development. She refers to them many times throughout the story. The story question, posed by Death, is for Lisa to decide if she wants to live or die. Other events and pivotal moments are thrown at Lisa and she just accepts them. Take for example: on page 53 Death tells her she's not Lisabeth Lewis anymore, now she's Famine. Her response? On page 54, "My dad's going to worry." She accepts being Famine the same way she accepts having to wash the dishes or make dinner. So why doesn't she accept being anorexic? Her friend Suzanne tells her she's anorexic (another event that takes place before the story opens), her boyfriend tells her she's anorexic, Lisa even admits she exercises too much, she's aware of the voice inside her that whispers caloric counts and tells her not to eat, she makes an attempt on her life (that she is entirely aware of), and yet she denies having an eating disorder. I'm not suggesting this is all out of whack or that it's a bad story; I think the character needed more development. I needed more time with Lisa to truly wonder what she was going to do in the end.

I found Lisa to be bland, one-dimensional, defined only by anorexia. Death, War, and even Pestilence were all more interesting characters. I feel this has to do with choice. The other four Horsemen made interesting choices. Lisa didn't really make interesting choices. She made predictable ones.While I'll remember the other characters well, Lisa is forgettable. She needed more details, something that might have explained how this particular teen knows the difference between a philosopher, a philanthropist, and a cynic, or knows what "Junoesque" or "heroin-chic" means. Maybe she reads the dictionary for pleasure or hangs out at museums. I don't know. As it stands, these five-dollar words feel more like author intrusion than character-defined thoughts.

The best scene of the book is when Lisa goes back to fight hunger in an undisclosed Third World community. Finally, finally, we get to see Lisa make choices, grow a spine and do something.

My favourite passage has to be at the end of Lisa's date, when she returns home and Death is waiting in her backyard.

"What do you think?" Death asked. "Should I give her five minutes? Let her calm down first? Maybe give her some time to get ready for her big night out? Or should I throw her to the metaphorical wolves?"

The black horse flicked its ears. The pale horse snorted.

"You're right," Death said. "Girls take forever to get ready. I'll go get her."

Like I said, I'm biased. HUNGER is also fast-paced and informative without being preachy. Heavy topics are nicely concealed within an imaginative fantasy world. But I guess you could say I was left hungry.

Ultimately, I'll read the next in the series, but I don't really care one way or the other if we never see Lisa again. I'm intrigued enough by the world, and the subjects of the next book (rage, cutting, and War) to take a chance on it, but I hope the next character will be a little more interesting. RAGE hits shelves April 2011.

HUNGER hits shelves October 18, 2010 with a portion of the proceeds going to the National Eating Disorders Association.

Jackie Morse Kessler's website.

Haunted Gingerbread House - Contest Announcement

Every year when October hits and the leaves turn orange, I get the urge to bake a Haunted Gingerbread House. I didn't used to get this urge in October. The only gingerbread house I wanted to make was the Christmas one and I was perfectly happy at that. Then along came October 2006 and ever since then, I've had to attempt the Haunted Gingerbread House, too.

It's all Rachel Vincent's fault!

October 2006, she posted this cute little homemade project:




But in October 2007, she made improvements and posted this:




In October 2008, she just had to go one step further with this house:



Then last year, October 2009, she left me hanging. Something about having to move or some other lame excuse for not making a haunted gingerbread house from scratch. But posted this homemade Christmas house a couple months later:



Even years later my own attempts still resemble the October 2006 house, barring major icing disasters and I've had many of those. I've even had to resort to using a pre-fab kit.

Do you make a Haunted Gingerbread House? I know I'm a little demented, but I can't be the only one.

I want to see your houses! So let's make it a contest! Here's how to enter:

1. Follow us on Twitter (http:/twitter.com/litlandscapes)
2. Re-tweet this contest announcement tweet to let all your friends know about it.
3. Post to your Twitter the pictures of your results. Use the hashtag: #llchauntedhouse

That's it! The top five will be posted here for final voting. Winner will receive $25 Amazon gift certificate! Contest closes October 31. Entrants must follow the rules to qualify. Check back November 1 for final voting.

Happy baking!

Stocking Stuffers Wanted

Trust me, you don't want to know how many shopping days you have until Christmas. You just need to know what to put in the stockings. Probably as much as I do. 

Don't look to stuff your stocking with the mass market paperback of Jim Butcher's CHANGES. The soft cover won't be available until March. 

Likewise, don't look for the mmpb of Kim Harrison's BLACK MAGIC SANCTION. It'll all be over with the wrapping paper still on the floor by the time it hits the shelves on December 28, 2010. 

So what am I going to put in there? (It's a sad fact that I have to stuff my own stocking, but that's what happens when a chain-reader marries a non-reader.)

Backlist titles for authors I've never had the chance to try. I like to do my shopping on-line and not only get softcover titles and the chance to try a new author or two or three, but the books are shipped in brown boxes. No hiding necessary. I leave the box sealed and wrap when I'm ready.

I'm looking for suggestions on titles and authors to try. Got a favourite author you'd like to promote? Suggested reading? Please leave a comment. Thanks!

Urban Fantasy vs Paranormal Romance

On Monday I posted Tor.com's list of urban fantasy new releases. What I didn't post what how bothered I was by the casual lumping together of paranormal romance with urban fantasy. The post lumped the two sub-genres together as "urban fantasies (with and without romance)."  Let me just be clear: I'm not mad at that writer or that particular post. It's the growing trend of ignorance that bothers me.

My irritation started when I read this back in July:

I also believe that just like “YA” is an umbrella for a wide variety of things, “urban fantasy” now no longer means just “paranormal romance.” (by Jeff Vandermeer)

And wondered, when did Urban Fantasy ever mean Paranormal Romance?  So I went to the post referenced in Vandermeer's post at Tor.com: Timeline of a Trend by Carrie Vaughn, which is actually an interesting article that examines when the term Urban Fantasy became a trendy buzz word. But there's nothing there that says anything about Urban Fantasy meaning Paranormal Romance. But there is this:

And there you have it. Before 2007, the term urban fantasy had not yet 
morphed into its current usage. By 2007, the term was everywhere. Why? 
That, I don’t know, though in a recent conversation a fellow writer 
suggested that this particular usage came from the romance community as a 
way to distinguish hard-edged stories from paranormal romance which feature 
a specific couple’s relationship and ends with “happily ever after.” I 
think there may be something to this. (Carrie Vaughn)

I think she might be partially right. The term is/was used to differentiate the two story-lines, but I don't think the term came into use via the romance community. The first time I heard the term was in around 2006 when a friend announced she'd snagged an agent. Like many authors at that time, she'd never heard of the term until her agent told her she'd written an urban fantasy. (Very few readers & writers at the time had heard the term, and those who did would have cited Emma Bull and Charles de Lint. They would have been right for these are the stories where Urban Fantasy planted its roots and when the term first came about. And that agent used to have a decent definition of Urban Fantasy on the agency's website, but that post is now gone.) I do believe Urban Fantasy came into today's popular use by way of agents and editors to differentiate the action/fantasy stories from the romances. In short, Urban Fantasy was a buzz word used for marketing purposes. And it stuck.

Recently Urban Fantasy has become a malapropism for "hot chicks in leather fighting and/or having sex with monsters." And this is the part that bothers me.

Lumping random things together to apply a single label to them is by definition "ignorance". Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance are distinct sub-genres and always have been. Futuristic Romance is not lumped in with Science Fiction. Not ever. What an uproar that would be. I think the only reason this trend of "lumping in" has occurred is because of reader cross-over, which is propagated because the reviewers cross-over trying to catch as many readers as they can. But ultimately, it's ignorant to not know or see or care to find out the difference.

If you are having difficulty figuring out if a story is Urban Fantasy or Paranormal Romance, here's a litmus test:

1. Hot chick in leather and/or carrying a weapon on the cover?
..................Too difficult to tell. Need more information. Covers are marketing tools. They don't really say much about the story or the writing.

2. Hot chick in leather and/or carrying a weapon with a man in the foreground or background on the cover and/or step-back?
..................It might be a Romance.

3. The back-cover blurb mentions a love interest? Or even *gasp* sex?
..................Too difficult to tell. Need more information. After all, even Harry Dresden has a sex life. Well, sometimes.

4. Does the cover include a quote from a "romance" author?
..................Too difficult to tell. Need more information. Romance authors can read and blurb for whatever books they want.

5. Is the story told first-person or third-person from a woman's point-of-view?
...................Too difficult to tell. Need more information. To assume Urban Fantasy is a women's genre is beyond ignorant. I feel sorry for Harry Dresden, Felix Castor, Simon Canderous and the many other male protagonists out there. The UF malapropism and UF/PR debate must really burn their chaps.

6. Is the story told from shifting POVs-- both a man's and a woman's (and sometimes an antagonist)?
...................It might be a Romance. This is a common trait among Romances, but it's not an exclusive trait.

7. Does nearly every chapter have an element of fantasy to it? I.e. does it have shapeshifters, vampires, fairies, zombies, unicorns, leprechauns, elves, gods, angels, demons, etc? Does the story go into a fantasy realm? Or does the fantasy exist within reality?
...................Too difficult to tell. Need more information.

8. Does nearly every chapter focus on getting the heroine and hero together as a couple? Does the antagonist/conflict focus on keeping them apart?
...................It might be a Romance.

9. Does nearly every chapter mainly focus on solving the mystery, finding the killer, fighting the bad guy, surviving the fantasy element, etc, with mentions of the romantic interest limited to a few chapters or a few passing paragraphs throughout the story?
....................It might be Urban Fantasy.

10. Does the story end with the couple together in a Happily Ever After?
....................It might be Romance.

11. Or does the story end with the hero/heroine still searching for that special someone?
....................It might be Urban Fantasy.

Just as there is a range of acids to neutrals to bases, there are a range of stories from primarily Urban Fantasy to primarily Paranormal Romance. There are distinctive characteristics of each-- just as acids and bases have distinctive characteristics-- but since we are all human and writers are each unique, the stories are unique and it's possible to have stories that blend characteristics of both UF and PR. But you would never call an acid a base or vice-versa. There are differences between acids and bases, and you've learned what they are, but if you're not sure, then you have a litmus test. So do yourself a favour: learn the differences between UF and PR-- get to know the characteristics. If you're not sure, use the above litmus test. But for goodness sakes, don't use the terms interchangeably, don't judge a book by its cover or its blurb, and don't pick either UF or PR to use as an umbrella term for both. If you must have an umbrella term, here's one: speculative fiction.

Book Review - Black Swan Rising by Lee Carroll

I bought this book because I was intrigued by the idea of fairies and vampires in a story together.  These two races usually don’t see screen time together and I thought, heck, how could I pass it up?

BLACK SWAN RISING opens with the main character, Garet (Margaret) James, being drawn to an antiques shop run by a mysterious John Dee.  Garet and her father own an art gallery and she wanders into this strange shop after a meeting with a lawyer where she finds out how deep in debt they are and is dazed and walking in a literal fog.  During the course of conversation, Dee notices her signet ring, a swan, given to her by her deceased mother.  He disappears into the back of the store and returns with a silver box that bears an identical insignia and offers her a thousand dollars to open the box.  

Once she opens the box, things begin to get weird.  The security alarm goes off and Garet discovers her father running downstairs with a gun, only for him to be shot during an apparent robbery where strange “Shadowmen” thieves not only steal some valuable art from the gallery but the silver box as well.  The story then becomes Garet’s search for the box and in the process discovering her ancestral past and herself.  

During the first 100 pages, I felt as though I was being told the story instead of shown.  What could have been a slow burn as the pieces of the mystery begin to reveal themselves in the first third of the book was just plain slow because I wasn’t immersed in the story.  I was on the outside of it looking in through the window waiting for something to happen that would draw me in.

Luckily, it did.

Once Garet discovers the true identity of one of the characters (name withheld for spoilers) and she begins her training as a guardian of the watchtower, the book begins to come alive with dream-like descriptions, well-drawn and interesting secondary characters and her relationship with the vampire Will Hughes.  

One of my favorite passages is when Garet is attacked and she needs Will to bite her in order to save her.  Their blood mingles and it enhances her sight.

A creature spun out of the colors of the night – indigo, violet, silver – it slipped among the heather bushes on blue-veined wings , absorbing the colors of whatever it landed on, bending its tiny foxlike face toward each tiny, bell-shaped blossom.  I thought at first it was sipping from the flowers, like a bee or a hummingbird, but then I saw it was drinking light and color instead.  As it dipped its face into a bloom, its diaphanous body vibrated with the flower’s color.

It is difficult to tell at times who her friends are and who her allies are and the truth to those roles is kept pretty well under wraps and I didn’t discover it until Garet did.  I found that refreshing.  But on the other hand, I also found it odd that in her relationships with her father and friends that there didn’t seem to be as much investment or closeness.  She felt concern and empathy but I didn’t feel much connection between them.

The story itself is so interesting that I will likely read the next in the series.  BLACK SWAN RISING is a wonderful blend of fantasy and urban fantasy that is actually quite unique.  I hope that there will be more show than tell in the next volume.  There is so much potential here that I am holding out hope to be swept away by the next book.

Lee Carroll is a pseudonym of Carol Goodman.  Carol Goodman’s website: http://www.carolgoodman.com/default.asp

Interview with Jackie Morse Kessler: on HUNGER

HUNGER is the first title in Jackie Morse Kessler's new series for teens. The four books will focus on problem teens and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, with a portion of the proceeds going to relevant charities. HUNGER goes on sale October 18. Catch my review of HUNGER next week.

I love what you've done with HUNGER. It feels like you've opened yourself up with this one, and I think you're brave for doing so. I can't wait to hear what teens think of it. 

JK: Thanks! I don’t feel brave. I’m an author with a story that I very much wanted to tell, for many reasons, for many years. I’m so grateful that my agent convinced me to write the book, and that my editor and entire team at Harcourt were so supportive. And oh, that cover! **grin** I’d love to hear what teens think about the book.

How did the idea for Hunger come about? How did the idea for this story start and how did it develop into the final product?

JK: I’ve wanted to write a story about an anorexic teenage girl who becomes the new Famine, of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, for years. I’ve had lots of influences about the Horseman aspect along the way, from Marvel Comics to Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett to Piers Anthony. What I wanted to do, more than focus on the Four Horsemen, was use the Horsemen—specifically, Famine—to tell the story of Lisabeth, who’s 17 and anorexic.

It took me a while to find the right beginning, and the right protagonist. But once I had those things in place, and once I understood the purpose of the Horsemen in the world I was creating, then the story flowed. Actually, it came flooding out in four weeks. Okay, to be fair, HUNGER is a short book. And I’d been thinking about it for ten years.

In Hunger, Lisa's friend Suzanne calls her anorexic. What names were you called when you were a kid?

JK: To be fair, Suzanne isn’t trying to hurt Lisa. She’s trying to get her to see the truth. But Lisa doesn’t take it very well. War calls Lisa “mouse.”

What was I called? Fat. “Thunder thighs” remains a sore spot. Other names, too, like “Jerky Horse” instead of “Jackie Morse.” 



I think we've all been called names at one time or another. How did you deal with it? 


JK: Usually, I bit back my answer and ignored the taunts. At the time, those names defined me. But now, years later, I couldn’t even tell you who said what, or when. Whoever called me those names aren’t in my life anymore — and I’m doing just fine. **grin**

I loved the scene where Lisa fights War. It's a great fight scene. Do you have a favourite scene in the book? 

JK: Thanks! I liked many scenes, like when Lisa goes to Egypt, but I think my favorite scene is when Death is waiting outside of Lisa’s house. His steed and Famine’s steed are together, and mosquitoes are buzzing around the horses—and then the mosquitoes fall to the ground, either starving or dead. **grin**

Death is a fun character. I can easily picture him as you described-- a Kurt Cobain look-alike-- and his scenes were always fun. Do you have a favourite character(s)?

JK: Hee, thanks! Death is definitely my favorite. I still don’t know why he looks like Kurt Cobain. It just happened that way. (Well, okay, now I have a reason for it, but when I first created the character, he simply had to look, sound, and sing like Kurt Cobain. I wasn’t even into Nirvana at the time!)

How did you mentally prepare for the tough emotional subjects of this story? What was it like to sit down and write every day?
 

JK: I write every day, anyway, so that wasn’t a change. As for preparing for the tough subject...this story wanted to be written for a long time. Slipping into the eating disorder mindset so that I could write Lisa’s character wasn’t difficult (which is a little upsetting all by itself. I wonder if that Thin Voice ever really goes away). Writing the book was actually very cathartic. 

Why the Horsemen of the Apocolypse? What drew you to that mythology?

JK: Like I said above, I had many influences for the Horsemen aspect, especially Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s bookGood Omens. I’m not the first person to write about an anorexic teen becoming someone called Famine — Marvel Comics did it back in the 1980s. The notion stuck with me for a long time, especially after my own struggle with bulimia. I wrote a short story, also called “Hunger,” that was published by the online magazine Byzarium many years ago. That was a very different sort of story, even though some of the same themes from the book HUNGER are explored in there.

For me, the Horsemen of the Apocalypse symbolize how we choose to destroy ourselves...and how we can save ourselves as well.  

HUNGER is a quick read, and I would have liked about twice as much story. (You left me hungering for more! *g*) Why is the story so short? I'm assuming it's due to constraints of the YA genre. What aspects of the story would you have liked to develop more if you could have?   

JK: Heh, yes. It’s short. That’s intentional. I could have added more world-building to HUNGER to really get into the mythology of the Horsemen, whether there will be an Apocalypse, flesh out the other Horsemen. But all of that would have taken away the focus from Lisa and her struggle with anorexia. Because ultimately, that’s what HUNGER is about: Lisa’s struggle. 

We’ll see a little more of the background of the Horsemen in the next book, RAGE, and even more in the third book, LOSS, which is Pestilence’s story. The fourth book, BREATH, will focus on Death, who is the only one of the Four Horsemen that’s the original, so it’s safe to say there will be quite a lot of stuff in that book.

Jackie Morse Kessler

What inspires you? What recharges you?

JK: Inspires me—you mean, to write? I have to write. It’s in my bones. Sometimes, I have to walk away from the writing for a few days and stop wrestling with scenes if they’re not working. But I always return. Usually, with chocolate. **grin**

What do you do in your spare time? 

JK: “Spare time”? What is this “spare time” of which you speak? **grin** When I’m not writing, or doing writing-related things, or working on my full-time day job, or doing things with my husband and two sons, or in tae kwon do class (testing for my green belt at the end of October!), I’m probably reading, watching previous episodes of The Daily Show, or grabbing a movie. (I know. Very exciting, no?)

What are you reading for pleasure?

JK: At the moment, I’m reading Rick Riordan’s The Red Pyramid; my eldest son is waiting for me to finish so we can discuss it. (Rick is his current favorite author.) I’m eagerly awaiting A.S. King’s new novel, Please Ignore Vera Dietz, which comes out on October 12. I’ve inhaled Heather Brewer’s Vlad Tod series and am itching for the first book in The Slayer Journals. Just finished Battle Royale by Koushun Takami, which was phenomenal. (And uber violent.) I’m about to do a ton of Robin Hood research, so I’ll probably be living and breathing that for a while.


THANK YOU for joining us, Jackie! For more information, please visit Jackie Morse Kessler's website. 


Up next week: Review of HUNGER. 


Jackie Kessler also writes urban fantasy for adults. 
 

October Books

October being Halloween month, it's no surprise there are so many new releases that focus on urban fantasy and horror.

Tor.com posted a list of new urban fantasy and paranormal romance titles.

Fantasy Book Critic has an awesome list of fantasy titles, chronologically ordered.

The Mad Hatter's Bookshelf has declared October to be Steampunk Month.


What are you reading this month?

Jennifer Rardin, R.I.P.

Photo from Rardin's blog.

Our hearts are filled with sadness and regret over the loss of Jennifer Rardin.
Ms. Rardin, 45, passed away suddenly and unexpectedly on September 20, 2010. Our thoughts and best wishes go out to her family and friends at this time.

During my time at Urban Fantasy Land, I had the chance to correspond with Ms. Rardin. She was always friendly and kind. A delightful person who appreciated and took time for her fans. 

Her Jaz Parks books are action-packed urban fantasies. Perfect for taking to the beach. Perfect for escaping from the everyday to live vicariously through Jaz, who speaks her mind and kicks some mighty butt. BITTEN TO DEATH was voted Best in Vampires in the 2008 Readers' Choice Awards. Her website reports that the final book in the Jaz Parks series, book 11, "was completed before her passing and will be out June 2011."

In August, I received this from Ms. Rardin:  

I have a new book coming out on November 8th.  It's the 7th in the Jaz Parks series, a real nail-biter in which the vampire, Vayl, loses all sense of reality during the most intense and important mission of his and Jaz's career.  The book is called Bitten in Two, and I'd love to talk to you and your followers at Urban Fantasy Land about it sometime if you have space for me.  Thanks for your consideration!

If there is one thing I would like us all to remember, it's that life is short. Support your favourite authors as much as you can. Buy their books. Send them a letter. Because you don't know what tomorrow will bring or take away.

Welcome!

We'd like express our deepest gratitude to Kenda Montgomery at Lurve a la Mode for creating our lovely header image! We love it!

You might remember us from another website: urbanfantasyland.wordpress.com. We're back!

Lisa and Sara (formerly known as Lindsay) have returned to the web to give you critical, no-nonsense book reviews and thought-provoking discussion on the little-known genres, as well as the popular ones. We're all for singing praises, but if we think a book has spinach between its teeth, you're going to hear about it.  

Upcoming posts include reviews of Jackie Morse Kessler's HUNGER and Lee Carroll's BLACK SWAN RISING. Watch for our multi-part discussion titled "Is Urban Fantasy Dead?", in which we talk to some authors who are putting their UF series to bed and ask other authors if they have any more UF in them to give.

Down the road you'll see reviews and discussions for Gaslamp Fantasy and the Punks-- Cyber, Steam and Bio. You might even see a literary mash-up or two!

The landscape of literature is always growing, always reinventing itself with new books, new subgenres. Come explore it with us!

~ Sara & Lisa ~