Lookie, Lookie: A New Review for Tears of Heaven

They're right, you know!

Hey, I received a new review! Thank you to Jake Pelley of Dystopian Shuffle!  

I especially like the last line of his opening [emphasis added]:

This book covers two eras of human history from the modern times to the roman. Both are important to the main story.  Most of this book takes place in modern day Salt Lake City, Utah. When in modern time R.A. McCandless does a great job of making it feel like the times we live in. Then when it is in Roman times it feels accurate to the era. In the book Game of Thrones it goes over a lot of characters stories. After a while there are characters you love to read and others you power through to get back to your favorites. During the beginning in Tears of Heavens I enjoyed the Roman times over the main adventure in the modern time. Every jump back to the past was enjoyable and fun, but over time that changes. I have to hand it to the author on that transition it was well done.

You can read the rest here.

If you’d like a free copy of Tears of Heaven to review on your website, blog, or family newsletter, leave a note in the comments below and we’ll make it happen!

Not Just Any Library: My Library

Is it secret?  Is it safe!?

Years ago, I read an Anthony Monday book by John Bellairs—I think it was The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn (excellent book, by the way). Bellairs had a line about Monday’s uncle who had an honest to goodness library, not just a room where someone put up a bookshelf.

That line may have cursed me.

When I learned that people could have their own library, I wanted one.

In our current house, we have a room designated as “the library”.  It is not an Anthony Monday-level library, but I have plans. 

I'm slowly taking my library back.

For years, it housed the majority of our boys’ Legos and Beyblades and other whatnots that I could step and curse in eighteen languages.

Needs more books.

This was always a stop-gap while the boys got older. It has some mediocre IKEA book shelves that mostly have books on them. We mostly kept their toys on the shelves that they could reach and some (a very few) of my books on the shelves that they couldn't reach. A few months ago, I had them go through all their toys and donate those they didn't play with. They were impressively brutal about it, and we ended up with three full trash boxes of toys and a trashbag of stuffed animals.

I recovered 1/3 of my shelving space, and quickly claimed them with books.

In the years to come, I will install two bookshelves that double as hidden doors—one to the bedroom and one to the bathroom. A faux river stone fireplace complete with outlets for a moderately sized flatscreen will appear. A magically hidden sound system—speakers built to look like books on the shelves—will be installed.  The remainder of my books will come out of storage and finally, finally, I’ll invest in overstuffed leather armchairs and ottomans.

THEN I'LL TAKE OVER THE WORLD!

How will you take over the world? Or maybe just how would you build your dream library?  Answer in the comments!

My First Car

Girl not included.

My parents bought my first car.  For about $100. 

A 1964 IH Scout.

The engine was ran, but not well and the electrical was a joke.  The body was mediocre.  It had been in a small accident and someone had beat out the fender with a ball peen hammer.  They'd also spray-painted it gold, but not a good gold (if there is such a thing).  It was a rusty-brown gold.  The kind of gold that let you know someone without Banksy’s talent had attempted to complete the job.

When the engine finally gave up, it took me months to learn how to tear down and rebuild.  My dad knew pretty much everything, could have completed the job on a weekend, and still had time to drink beer and BBQ burgers.

I managed well enough, but I needed help getting the timing right.  A friend of my dad’s who was a pinball wizard at timing took about fifteen minutes.

The transmission, manual of course, was interesting.  Going around a corner, it would always pop out of 2nd.  I had to hold in the stick (that's what she said).  Sometime after I finished the engine rebuild, the transmission went out.

In winter, of course.

I tried to service it myself (that’s what she said).  I pulled a used engine from a pick-your-part lot (aka junk yard) with no luck.  I now had two transmissions that were shot.  I’m pretty certain I took out and put the transmission back in five or six times.  Finally, I had to take it to a "specialist" who initially was going to replace it with a Chevy 4-speed, but then for some reason didn't.  The entire thing worked reasonably well enough to get me from Salt Lake City to Portales, New Mexico for my first two years of college.

It's also the vehicle where I met my wife for the first time.

Tell me about your first car in the comments below.  It might make it into my next book!

The illegitimate, unworthy Kavanaugh: Edwin Lyngar

That's what I do—I drink, and I know things.

Edwin Lyngar, long time friend, writer, editor and pontificator of all that is good and rational, has a new article up.  This one is near and dear to my heart.  Here’s a short excerpt:

The current Supreme Court nomination fight has morphed into a combination of Judge Judy and Jersey Shore. We should have seen it coming, because everything touched by Donald Trump turns into a trashy reality show, and, like all Trump’s greatest hits, women always suffer the most.

The context for this fight is Americas firm rejection of radical conservative ideology — it’s grossly unpopular. Almost 80 percent of Americans support campaign finance reform that was torpedoed by the out-of-touch Supreme Court. Americans are sick of the war on drugs, wholesale ownership of the political process by the rich, mass incarceration and the attack on women — all things that a Justice Brett Kavanaugh would make much worse. Even a majority of Republicans support Roe v. Wade. Republicans won’t like it when their daughters can’t get health care, although the corrupt political class will still be able to shuttle their mistresses to blue states for abortions as needed.

You can read the whole thing here.  

When Free Pictures Aren't

Biel you can be!

Oops!

Serves me right.  I thought I had a royalty free image of a model in the perfect pose for my new cover art.  Alas, turns out it was not only royalty free, it was Jessica Biel.

Clearly, I have no idea what movie this is.  Chances are, I saw it and haven’t realized.

Fortunately, the cover can be saved—and this time I’m paying for the image so as to not run afoul of any likeness rights confusion.  Saved all the receipts and everything!

The upshot of all this is you’ll see a new cover for TEARS OF HEAVEN in the very new future.  There will also be a re-release of the book shortly thereafter.

The Best of All Cities

For which it stands.

A friend posted up the cover of Plato’s The Republic as being on his top list.  If you haven’t read it, it’s probably not what you think.  It’s considered a classical treatise on government, but really it’s something of a thought-experiment and science fiction type of world building.

No, really.

Plato uses Socrates, as he often does, as the mouthpiece for most of his thoughts.  This book, however, is completely Plato’s as a work. Within the work, Plato takes on various other city-states and propose a completely different manner of society and political organization: Kallipolis—"beautiful city.”  Kallipolis is a place wholly controlled by a society whose rules and norms have been laid down from the start and presided over by the ultimate product of the city: a philosopher king.

There are many problems with Plato’s Kallipolis, starting with the norms the city should engage in, which tend to ignore human nature and human drives completely.  As a hypothetical thought experiment, though, it’s fascinating.  Enough that Jo Walton wrote her Thessaly series based on the notion of philosophers and orphans, taken out of time, building a Kallipolis called the Just City—which is also the name of the first book in the series.

I first picked up The Republic, along with Machiavelli’s The Prince, when I was working on a steampunk story that centered on an imposter being pushed into a position of power—a cross between The Man in the Iron Mask and the Kevin Kline movie Dave.  I was shocked, SHOCKED, when I found out that Plato/Socrates had stolen my idea about raising orphans to become a standing army/police force called Guardians

Like gold in the refiner's fire!

Stolen centuries before I’d come up with the notion on my own.

Buncha jerks, those Greek philosophers!

Of course, Plato takes the entire concept a bit further, having through well beyond the notion of orphans, to actually generating children who would serve no other purpose than to train to be Guardians and produce more children for that sole purpose.  In addition, Plato hit on some interesting notions:

All reproduction is regulated by the City so that the best Guardians produce children who, in theory, become the best Guardians.

Boys and girl Guardians receive the same education so that they can best serve the City and produce the best Guardians.

For a number of reasons, of which the previously mentioned Jo Walton goes into some detail, this isn’t really practical.  The notion does, however, remain fascinating to me, and something that I may end up exploring in greater detail in the future.

Tag, You're It!

What is this game and where can I play it!?

Dialogue and dialogue tags can be tricky because the rules generally aren’t taught as part of grammar.  There is also a fun trick that can get you away from the annoying "she said" and "she said" and "she said" redundancy that you might find yourself sucked down into when working on your dialogue scenes.

Generally.

Here’s a quick example of the most common kinds of dialogue and dialogue tags.

“Here’s a line being spoken by a character,” she said.

“And this,” he replied, “is dialogue broken up with a dialogue tag.”

“This dialogue is a complete sentence,” she told him. “This is a new line of dialogue which doesn’t need a tag.”

“This dialogue will be followed by an action, rather than a tag.” He grinned.

“That’s right.” She winked back at him. “You don’t need a dialogue tag because you can’t speak by grinning.”

The fourth and fifth lines are perhaps my favorite form of designating a speaking character without using a dialogue tag.  It works by having the character perform an action right after their dialogue.  This gets the writer away from the “he said” and “she responded” dialogue tags but still allow the reader to immediately identify the speaking character with the line.

So You're Gonna Beta Read!

It's not you, it's your story!

Beta readers are an essential function for any author. But you only get what you put in, which means you’re probably going to be asked to read yourself.  Beta reading is actually an excellent opportunity to work those reading/writing muscles and provide some excellent feedback, while also gaining something from the experience.

Here are some essential tips to bringing you A-game to the Beta Reading Tournament and become a champion:

1 – Listen to the writer’s request.

This one can’t be stressed or said enough.  Some authors want the full package: grammar, spelling, character development, dialogue, plotting, etc.  Others would rather you focus on just a few items from their list. Be very clear with the author about what is expected. If you haven’t been asked for spelling correction, don’t provide it.  If the author hasn't told you what's expected, ask. Make certain to understand fully what you're reading for, and when the author wants it returned.

2 – It’s not your book.

I hate to be negative on lists, but there’s no polite way to say it—do not provide rewrites.  This isn’t your book, this isn’t your plot, these aren’t your characters.  You wouldn’t expect to whip out your brushes and paints and start “correcting” another artist’s still life of rotten fruits. As writers, we're often tempted to show (rather than tell) how we'd do it (and do it better).  Don't.  Just don't.  Don’t rework the author's work unless unless you’ve been asked for examples.

3 – Be realistic.

Did you seriously just ask if you could:
"wind my mainspring?"

You’re busy, and you have a life. Well, you're a writer, and you have work to do, research to complete, and your family may want an appearance at the dinner table every third evening. If you can’t realistically complete the task when asked, and if you can’t put out your best effort let the author know before you agree.  If something bad happens and you aren't going to meat the deadline, or you're going to be a few days overdue, tell the author. It doesn’t help if you mismanage expectations, and it certainly doesn’t do anything for your reputation.

4 – Read what you like and what you know.

The author has asked you for your opinions, and the best opinions you can provide come from your genre, or those genres that you enjoy. Reading outside of a realm where you’re comfortable and familiar is not a good way to provide beta-level feedback to an author.  If you're a steampunk author, getting lost in a romance novel's expected tropes and trappings won't do anyone any good.  Helping another steampunk author figure out that mainsprings and airships are the way to go will!

5 – Be gentle, be kind, be conversational, be honest.

The beta-read is no time to dust off your sarcasm and irony and show how cleverly you can tear down a manuscript. There are no awards for Most Cutting Remarks in a Mixed Genre. This doesn’t mean you pull punches—wrong is wrong and boring is boring. If you found a passage or a scene frustrating or hard to get through, say that and explain it.  Some of the best feedback is framed in the form of a question, rather than advice—“Did you mean in Chapter 2 for the reader to believe that the butler did it?” This may even help to show a major flaw in the overall writing.

Don't Break the Glass

Sarah is wondering why you stopped reading?

Etymology can be both fun and frustrating.  Fictional writers get to do pretty much whatever they want—provided they don’t break the reader’s willing suspension of disbelief.

That’s the trick.

Recently, I reviewed a draft blurb for another author who used a line similar to this:

When Sarah and George touch, they can cause great destruction, ruin buildings, or build them back up.

Nothing inherently wrong with that.  It reads like a young adult, superhero genre story in a contemporary setting.

Except it’s not.

George knows why you stopped, and doesn't care.

The author explained the setting—outside of the blurb—as a story set 90,000 years ago.  Understand, she’d done her due-diligence—Sarah is Biblical and means “princess” while George comes from the Greek Georgos and means farmer.

The problem with this is Sarah and George are common, contemporary names, and with no other clues as to the setting, they don’t speak to an ancient fantasy-type story.  As the writer who has done all the research on names and dates and so forth, this is all justified.  The problem comes when a reader picks up the book expecting a coming-of-age story (with superpowers!) and gets a fantasy-themed tale about a princess and a farmer.

Despite advances in technology, writers still can’t address every reader’s concerns as they read through the story.

So while the reader must supply a willing suspension of disbelief, the writer must take every measure to not break that trust—even if it means changing the heavily researched names of the characters.