Liebster Blog Award

On February 6th, I was honored to receive the Liebster Blog Award. Thanks go out to my good friend, Katie Kenyhercz for the award.

The Liebster Award is given to up and coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers. Liebster is German and means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome. Wow! That's a lot of work for one little word!

Here are the rules for receiving the award:

1. Each person must post 11 things about themselves.
2. Answer the questions the tagger has set for you. Plus create 11 questions for the people you've tagged to answer. (It’s the same 11 questions.)
3. Choose 11 people and link them in your post. (I have 7).
4. Go to their page and tell them.
5. Remember, no tag backs!

Eleven things about me:

1. I love singing as much as I love writing.
2. I’ll forever be a Bostonian.
3. I still love Disney’s GARGOYLES.
4. Goat cheese is my favorite cheese.
5. My favorite Broadway musical is WICKED.
6. When I wear makeup, I wear tasteful purple eye shadow.
7. I have a wrap-around dragon bracelet that is my signature piece of jewelry.
8. I can’t live where it’s very warm most of the year because I’m a boots, jeans, and sweatshirt person. I like to project “don’t mess with me” even if I can’t necessarily follow through.
9. My preferred type of fantasy character is a thief/assassin.
10. I’ve always wanted a motorcycle.
11. I’m a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy fangirl.

Eleven questions about me and my answers:

1. Beach or mountain holiday? Mountain. I live eight minutes from the beach.
2. Where in the family do you come? Only child.
3. Dog or cat person? Dogs, but cats love me for some reason.
4. What's your favorite season and why? Fall. It’s warm enough to be comfortable outside but cool enough for me to wear my boots, jeans, and sweatshirt ensemble from above.
5. What's the last book you read? The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
6. What's the last movie you watched? Um. I don’t remember. Muppet Christmas Carol, I think.
7. What's your favorite weather and why? Between 45 and 65. See clothing preference above. Up to 85 is okay, though.
8. What would you like to be written on your tombstone? “She was an –ism—enough said.”
9. How would you like to be remembered? As an author and a good person to those close to me.
10. When and why was the last time you giggled uncontrollably? A few days ago. I can’t remember exactly why, but it’s the laughing that really counts.
11. What's your favorite photo on display? There’s one of me at the aquarium standing beside a tank of jellyfish. I put the caption as “I shall call them Squishy, and they shall be mine. And they shall be my squishies.”

Here are the people I’m tagging. Go to their blogs and congratulate them!

Lauren Michaud
Rachel Robins
Heather Sedlak
Tiffany Avery
Alexis Lantgen
Louise Findlay
Desiree M. Mondesir
Sam Mandhla Moyo
Bruce Atchison on blogger and wordpress

Writing Music

Good Monday,

Recently, I decided I was going to replay Kingdom Hearts. For those who don’t know, Kingdom Hearts is the Disney rpg PS2 game that came out back in 2002. It centers around Sora, whose tropical island home world is destroyed. With the help of Donald Duck and Goofy, he must use the Keyblade to save the worlds and his friends.

What does this have to do with writing? Aside from being an exemplary sample of combining plots, many writers I know use music as inspiration while writing. Kingdom Hearts offers an amazing soundtrack for just such inspiration. I have the entire soundtrack and love it. Below are my top recommendations for Kingdom Hearts music.

My personal favorite is Hollow Bastion. Stunning orchestration. There is also the Kingdom Hearts Suite (Hikari Kingdom Orchestra), an instrumental version of Simple and Clean.

Any of the battle music is good for writing, well, battle scenes. There’s some gentler music for romantic moments as well.

And of course, since it is a Disney game, there are some lovely Disney music instrumentals. These include Winnie the Pooh, Under the Sea, and This is Halloween.

Happy writing!

P.S. Five bonus points to anyone who knows Donald Duck’s middle name. I’ll answer the question next Monday.

Book Tour--MINOTAUR REVISITED by David Gelber

Goddess Fish Book Tour

MINOTAUR REVISITED by David Gelber
A historical fantasy

BLURB
Legend states that the Minotaur was confined to the Labyrinth, slain by Theseus and then laid to rest by thousands of years of Greek mythology. But, the truth is far different. Read the Minotaur’s own words as he recounts his full life as god, king, warrior, matchmaker, midwife, monk, sage, father, mother, husband and, most of all, witness. The fierce Minotaur lived to see and be a part of the best and worst of humanity during a life spanning thousands of years. Part bull, part human, the Minotaur struggled to find his place in this world and, in the end, left his unique mark on history.

AN INTERVIEW WITH DAVID GELBER
-What book and/or experience made you want to be a writer?

In high school I wrote a few things which my teachers thought were entertaining and funny. At that time I considered becoming a writer. I had always had an idea for a story, a character actually, but never had the drive to sit down and write until I started “Future Hope” in 2006. That character became Joshua Smith, who is first appears in “Future Hope” and takes center stage in “Joshua and Aaron.” Joshua Smith is a character who is a bit cynical, extremely intelligent and resourceful. He solves problems by using his intelligence and insight.

-What genre(s) do you write?

My fiction stories are speculative fiction/science fiction. “Minotaur Revisited” probably fits best into the genre of historical fantasy. The two books about surgery are nonfiction.

-For other aspiring writers, any tips?

Write about what interests you, don’t be afraid to use your imagination and find a good editor.

-What’s your favorite book/genre to read?

Literary Classics such as Dickens, Hugo, Dostoyevsky.

-What’s your favorite thing you’ve ever written?

The poker scene in “Joshua and Aaron” where Joshua Smith has to play poker with Death while the entire fare of humanity hangs on his success or failure.

ABOUT DAVID
David Gelber, a New York native, is the seventh of nine sons and one of three to pursue medicine. He graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 1980 and went on to graduate medical school in 1984 from the University of Rochester.

He completed his residency at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, followed by three years as attending surgeon at Nassau County Medical Center in Long Island, N.Y. Gelber has since joined Coastal Surgical Group in Houston, Texas.

Gelber has been a surgeon for more than 20 years, but over the last few years he began to pursue his passion for writing, initially with his debut novel, "Future Hope" (Emerald Book Company, January 2010). The novel speculates about future Earth and what the world might have been like if man had not succumbed to temptation in the Garden of Eden. "Joshua and Aaron" is a sequel to "Future Hope" and follows the battle of wills that transpires between unsung hero Joshua Smith and satanic Aaron Diblonski.

Dr. Gelber has added two books about surgery, "Behind the Mask" and "Under the Drapes", both of which provide the reader with a view of the world of surgery rarely seen by those outside the medical professions.

"Last Light" is an apocalyptic short story which starts off asking the question: "What would happen if nobody ever was sick or injured?”

"Minotaur Revisited" is an entertaining romp through history seen through the eyes of Quint, the famed half bull half man monster of Greek Mythology.

“I thought I might become a writer when I was in high school. However, college was only discouraging and I took the easy way out and became a surgeon instead. About seven years ago I had an idea for a futuristic novel and managed to write “Future Hope”, book one of the ITP series. I followed this with “Joshua and Aaron”, book two in that series. These books are speculative fiction, looking at a future earth where God and religion have been eliminated. My wife suggested I write about something I actually knew about, so I wrote two books about surgery, “Behind the Mask” and “Under the Drapes”. Along the way I also wrote a short story, “Last Light”, an eschatological story and now, “Minotaur Revisited”, which started as a short story but blossomed into a short novel.”

Gelber was raised in reformed Judaism, but joined the Presbyterian Church 15 years ago. He is married with three teenage children, four dogs and 24 birds of various species. His interests include horse racing, mechanical Swiss watches and, of course, writing.

Visit David’s website, and check out his blog.

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Hey, readers,

A new take on an old story, very cool.

And of course, don’t forget to leave comments on the posts for this tour and on David’s review tour for a chance at an awesome prize.

David will be awarding a $100 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn commenter at the conclusion of the two tours.

Writer Hell

Hello folks,

I had my own version of Writer Hell this morning. The next time you get down about writing, remember this anecdote.

My thesis novel for Seton Hill is killing me slowly. Recently, it occurred to me that I needed to haul ass or burn rubber or something if I wanted to finish and graduate on time. So I instituted a 1000-word-a-day plan. For anyone who was around last October and remembers my 531-a-day project (aka my urban fantasy), this is that on steroids.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, no one/nothing is perfect…including computers. I made an “oops” this morning. I was chugging along about 500 words into my thousand for the day. Things were good.

And then I (completely accidentally and in the span of about 2 seconds) selected all, hit backspace, saved, and closed the file. I had 2500 words of this month’s submission in this document.

Oh. my. God!

Needless to say I was not happy. I also had a full blown panic attack.

Did you know that windows can only recover previous versions of a document if you didn’t close the document? Me neither, but I was not happy to learn this.

That didn’t help the panic attack, and post learning this fact I fled to Google and began my frantic search for a solution.

Nothing.

In a stroke of desperation, I downloaded a file retriever and ran it on my flash drive.

Results!

I got back Monday and Tuesday’s progress—2000 words. Holy Hell, yes, that’s fine. I needed to seriously rework what I’d written this morning anyway.

I’ve never been happier to see 2000 words in my life.

And so it is with everlasting gratitude that I give a shout out and a big promotion to Pandora Recovery. You saved my thesis and possibly my life.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Writing Boston

Good Monday,

I’m feeling nostalgic today, and I’m missing my Boston something fierce. But until the cost of living in New England goes down, I’ll have to be content with watching the snow progress from afar.

No worries, though. I intend to turn my homesickness into a productive blog post for writers. Look at me being all “for the greater good” –ish.

A large part of realism in a novel set on Earth is accuracy. It is very important to know your setting. If you’ve set your story in Panama, for example, I beg you not to have three feet of snowfall unless it’s post-apocalyptic Panama.

I spent the first 24 years of my life in Massachusetts. As I’ve heard many times about other places, “you can take the girl out of Boston, but you can’t take the Boston out of the girl.” This is true, and today I’ve got some Massachusetts details for anyone writing about the area.

Contrary to some popular beliefs, Bostonians are not jerks. A bit egotistical (lol), yes, but not jerks. If you really want to set your Boston characters apart from the rest, we curse in public, glare a lot, and shout a lot of nasty stuff when you cut in front of us while driving. But under most of the callous exteriors, there are people worth knowing.

-Speech Patterns

For the record “we don’t have accents. The rest of the world does.”

A lot of Bostonians drop their “r”s. I don’t unless I’m angry, but I’ve known plenty who do. To get the accent right, try the traditional old standby “Pahk the cah in Hahvahd yahd.” It should read “Park the car in Harvard Yard,” but really, who talks like that? Oh, the rest of the world, right.

Wicked

Saying something is “wicked” is an England thing. Well, Boston is in New England, so we adopted it. (I’m not sure if that’s true, but it sounds good.) We use “wicked” to modify things, though. One popular saying is “wicked awesome.” Then you have your die-harders who say (dun dun dun) “wicked pissa.”

-Community Behavior

Jaywalking. We love jaywalking. If you go to Boston and don’t jaywalk, people will stare at you. It’s an expected way of crossing streets. The drivers know it’s coming, and they honk anyway. Without being offensive, New Englanders have notoriously short memories for trivial stuff. Once behind the wheel, they forget that they were jaywalking twenty minutes ago.

-Seasons

The same short-term memory issue applies to the seasons. In the winter, we complain that it’s cold. In the summer, we complain that it’s hot. Both times, it is as if the weather has never been any other way, and why won’t it ever hurry it up and get to the next season!?!?

Oh and spring doesn’t exist. Autumn is “the time when the trees turn pretty colors” and, to a lot of people, may as well be winter.

-Pronunciation Guide

Worcester – It looks like Wor-chester. It’s not. It’s not even Wooster. It’s Wistah. I don’t know why all those extra letters are in there.

Peabody – If this wasn’t my hometown, I wouldn’t bother with it because odds are good you’ve never heard of it. It’s not Pea-body. It’s Pea-biddy. Get it right!:)

Massachusetts Avenue – Mass Ave. Short, sweet, to the point.

Massachusetts Turnpike – Mass Pike

Cape Cod – It’s just “the Cape” to Mass natives.

Bostonians – I’ve tried, and you feel free to try if you’d like. There is no way to say people from Massachusetts by adding letters to the end of the state. Massachusettens? Massachusettians? Massachusettizians? No. People from Massachusetts are simply “Bostonians,” even if they aren’t from Boston itself.

-Navigation Guide

For the whole state

North Shore – anything north of Boston but still relatively close to the ocean

South Shore – Anything south of Boston but still relatively close to the ocean

Greater Boston area - the area inside 128 (not Route 128. 128)

Western Massachusetts – everything else. Not unnaturally, the western part of the state has developed a bit of “grr” from always being lumped together like this. But who listens to them anyway? (I’m from the North Shore. Can you tell?)

For Boston

North End – Northern Boston. You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting an Italian restaurant, and it is not called “Little Italy.”

South Boston – Southie to locals

East Boston – The airport’s there. Other than that, I have no idea.

Dorchester – It’s technically part of Boston, but people from Dorchester are “from Dorchestah.”

Jamaica Plain – Technically part of Boston, but people from Jamaica Plain are “from JP.”

Brighton – same as above

Brookline – same as above

Mattapan – same as above

There are more of these. To quote the king from “The King and I” “etc. etc. etc.”

-Travel

Boston and the surrounding areas have public transit. There is the subway, the commuter rail, the ferry, and the busses. All the info for all branches/routes is available at the official MBTA website. I defer you there because they have maps that will be more helpful to your characters than me describing the city.

There’s my two cents.

As a parting gift, here are a few books set in Massachusetts.

“The Killer’s Cousin” – Nancy Werlin
Victory Vaughn Series – Nancy Holzner
The Rizzoli and Isles books – Tess Gerritsen
“Cell” – Stephen King

Four Fantastically Frustrating Fantasy Tropes

Good Friday,

Reading, I have found, is much like ice cream. Everyone prefers different flavors. Flavors, I have discovered, are much like tropes. They are many and various and some are liked better or worse by others. Fantasy has many, many tropes. Having inserted myself into the world as a writer of fantasy, I’ve read a fair share of novels in the genre. And much like my taste in ice cream, there are some tropes that I like better. There are also tropes that are just overdone, and I would be happy never to see another new release employ them. I’ve outlined a few below.

Four Fantastically Frustrating Fantasy Tropes

-prophesy

Please, stop. Heroes/heroines are meant to save mankind. If they didn’t, we wouldn’t read the book. So why then must there be old books/scrolls/people/talking cats that expound at length about the hero’s controversial potential to save the world?

I think my real issue with prophesy is that it takes up so much space in the story. The characters debate it into the ground. Meanwhile, in any normal timeline, the great evil would have leveled the last-standing fortress and enforced its purple, studded leotards on the world’s inhabitants.

-“Tavern meetings”

Anyone ever played Dungeons and Dragons? If yes, you nodded knowingly at the title to this section. If not, allow me to explain. A common start point for a D&D campaign is for the Dungeon Master (think of him as God) to put everyone’s avatars in one section of the map and then calmly announce “You’re all in a tavern.” This is usually followed by some variation of “and a conflict begins. What do you do?” The players then act out their characters’ appropriate responses to the crisis, and somehow, the conflict ends with a merry band of travelers (who just happen to be a well-blended mix of fighters, casters, healers, and meat shields) forming.

I’ve seen this too many times, and it’s gotten old. I’d much rather room be left for character/relationship growth. If that means forming the merry band over several chapters instead of by the middle of chapter 2, that’s what it means. I won’t stop reading just because they haven’t broken out the bagpipes by page 30.

-Powerful magic keeps romantic couple apart

This dives a bit into romance, but since most fantasy novels include some kind of romantic couple, I figure it fits. Also, this is not “forbidden love.” Forbidden love needs an external sociological viewpoint to disdain it in order for it to be forbidden. This is “we met in a whirlwind of sudden, fierce attraction and after our first night together realized that we can never have one another because a powerful magic (that, consequently, affects no one but them) could kill one or both of us.”

Could they, just once, do their homework and know about the powerful, destined-to-keep-them-apart magic before they jump into bed? More importantly, could they be responsible about it and, maybe, look for a solution instead of giving up because “everyone says it’s impossible.” I like a good helping of romance in my fantasy because, even though I don’t write straight-up romance, I believe in “happy for the foreseeable future.” What I don’t like is one of the members of the couple (usually the woman) whining for 300 pages because she can’t have her “one true love.”

-Vampires

Please, please, please, no more vampires. A while back, I wrote a post on five reasons vampires aren’t sexy. See this post for five reasons why this appears on my list of frustrating tropes.

Aside from those five reasons, vamps are just overdone. I write urban fantasy. Yes, there are vampires in my urban fantasy world. No, they are not the main characters. No, they are not seducing the main character. No, they are not all the hottest creatures around. I have passed up so many books because the blurb contained some variation of the words “sexy vampire hero who enslaves her body and mind.” Oh man, that’s just gross.

Book Tour--INSATIABLE by Emily Kimelman

Goddess Fish Blurb Blitz Tour

INSATIABLE (A Sydney Rye Novel, #3) by Emily Kimelman
A dark murder mystery

BLURB
INSATIABLE is the third novel in my Sydney Rye Series of dark murder mysteries. This series features a strong female protagonist and her canine best friend. It is recommended for the 18+ who enjoy some violence, don't mind dirty language, and are up for a dash of sex. Not to mention an awesome, rollicking good mystery!

INSATIABLE begins with private detective Sydney Rye living a simple, disciplined life in London, but when a dangerous man from her past calls, Rye finds she cannot turn him away. Robert Maxim explains that the daughter of a powerful friend has gone missing and he wants Rye to find her. In exchange he offers her something she had given up hope of ever having; freedom from her past.

With her dog, Blue, at her side, Rye meets up with her new partner, a handsome man she's not sure she can trust. Heading for Mexico City, they go undercover, posing as husband and wife. After meeting with the bereaved parents, Rye starts to sense that there is more going on than just a missing girl. But it isn't until they arrive in the Yucatan Peninsula, hot on the girl's trail in Paradise, that all hell breaks loose. Sydney has to reach out for help from old friends and deal with the consequences of her past, if she's going to find the girl and keep them all alive.

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EXCERPT

Around the next bend a chicken was in the road. Jimmy saw it and swerved into a rut to avoid it. It was a wild, out-of-control move and I grabbed at the door trying to steady myself. The Jeep jerked down and then up again as Jimmy powered us out of the ditch and back onto the road. "What the fuck!" I yelled.

"There was a chicken.”

"Next time fucking hit the chicken!”

That's exactly what the guy in the black Jeep did. I turned around to see the feathers exploding with a mix of blood and guts against the guy's grill. He drove through the chicken into the shade of a tree and I saw him. I saw Blane. He was wearing wrap-around sunglasses - the kind douche bags think look cool. His mouth was a straight line, his face made of stone.

I rested my new gun on the shoulder of my seat and tried to steady my aim as we raced back past the Home Depot. Jimmy swerved around other cars, at times facing oncoming traffic, to further our escape. It was impossible to get a clear shot. I turned back around as we crested a hill and we could see the town below us.

Traffic became congested as we got closer to town. I turned around and saw that Blane was stuck several cars behind us. There was no way he could fire off any rounds with all these people around. We stopped at a red light and I waved to Blane. He raised a gun and I dropped down in my seat as I heard a window shatter. It wasn't our car but the one right behind us.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Emily Kimelman lives on a boat in the Hudson Valley with her husband, Sean and their dog Kinsey (named after Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone). Kimelman has a passion for traveling and spends as much time as possible in the pursuit of adventure.

Want more? Check out Emily’s website/blog. Follow her on Twitter @ejkimelman. “Like” her on Facebook, and connect with Emily on Goodreads.

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Hey, readers!

Gotta love chickens in the middle of the road. Lol.

Like what you see above? Follow the rest of the tour.

And don’t forget to comment everywhere for a chance at an awesome prize!

Emily will be awarding a hand blown pint glass that her husband (a third generation glassblower) made for the launch of her first novel, UNLEASHED, to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour.