Category: Vampires

Review: Christmas Wish (a Romanorum world story) by Shayne Carmichael & Mychael Black

Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

All I Want Christmas WishIt has been ten years since Elian was forced to leave his soulmate, mortal Ryan Nixon.  Elian was a angel, a grigori who is a watcher angel who teaches human certain life lessons.  They are not supposed to get involved with humans and Elian broke all their rules when he fell in love with Ryan and became his lover.  Forced to separate from Ryan, Elian has now completed his punishment and returned to Earth to find Ryan.

But the man has greatly changed.  The man Elian left was brash, intelligent and ambitious.  The Ryan Elian found was homeless, gaunt, and on the verge of dying.  Both men have now paid for their mistakes.  Ryan has lost everything his ambition and greed initially won him.  Elian lost ten years in isolation, banished from Earth to pay for breaking the rules.  Now the angel has found his lover once more.  Is it too late for their love to succeed?  Or will their christmas wish make a miracle happen so they can find a way back to each other?

Shayne Carmichael and Mychael Black’s Romanorum stories are among my favorites so I was delighted to see this Torquere Holiday Sip that ventured back into that universe and brought back a major character, Cian, albeit in a minor role.  The authors gifts of characterization and description bring the plight of Ryan Nixon powerfully to life.  This is Elian’s first sighting of Ryan after ten years apart and it is a heartbreaking one:

Elian spotted a lone figure on a wooden bench, partially hidden by a tattered coat. Elian’s heart broke all over again. Ryan had indeed learned about the dangers of greed and avarice, and the lesson had taken everything — everything — away from him, leaving him a broken, destitute man.

Threadbare gloves barely covered the hands that held the coat closed against the bite of the winter wind. Though he was only thirty-two, time had etched lines in the once- youthful face, and a sprinkling of gray dusted the black hair.

Huddled on the bench, he appeared to pay no attention to the few who braved the cold on their own business. A half-eaten sandwich lay forgotten in its plastic wrapping as Ryan stared off in the distance at a grove of trees.

Elian crouched in front of him, meeting Ryan’s empty gaze. He reached out and smoothed a lock of dark hair back from green eyes that once held a spark of life. Now they just seemed… lost.

The man Elian is confronted with is someone who has lost all hope and seems ready to die, one of many found on any winter street in any city or town.  An added layer to Ryan’s despair is the fact that he is to blame for his downfall, that his avarice and overwhelming ambition that made him rich also ruined him and Ryan has had ten years to realize that.

Carmichael and Black make Ryan believable in his self-loathing and despair.  He has gone beyond bitterness into an emotional place of isolation and emptiness that gives this portrait of homelessness a feel of authenticity.  Elian’s character, an angel who defied Heaven’s laws to be with his lover, is harder to grasp, probably because he is more of a two note persona, goodness and light, to feel entirely credible.  And their love story and reconnection, while emotionally engaging, felt too rushed to be believable, especially after all that has occurred during their ten-year separation.

These authors have made their angel characters multidimensional in the past so I think the issue with Elian is that the story length doesn’t give the authors enough space to imbue Elian with the depth of character he needs to feel real.  In fact, I think that shortness hurts this story in almost every way.  For those readers unfamiliar with the Romanorum universe, the lack of backstory will leave many of them confused about the plot.  Especially when Cian appears to offer his apologies to Elian.  Most people will wonder exactly what and who Cian is referring to (or exactly who Cian is and why he is important) when offering his explanation for his actions.  Unless you have read all the previous books or at least The Prince’s Angel, you will be lost during this section of the story.

I did really like this story but I had the background to do so.  I absolutely recommend this series and would want any new reader to start at the beginning with The Prince’s Angel to get a better understanding of the universe and the huge cast of characters to be found there, including angels and vampires.  Used as a part of the whole, then I can absolutely recommend Christmas Wish to all.

Cover artist is not listed as I suspect this is a blanket cover used for many of Torquere Holiday Sip stories.

Books in the Romanorum series:

The Prince’s Angel (Legends of the Romanorum, #1)
And the Two Shall Become One (Legends of the Romanorum, #2)
Forever May Not Be Long Enough (Legends of the Romanorum, #3)
Christmas Wish (Legends of the Romanorum, #4)

Book Details:

ebook, 26 pages
Published December 4th 2013 by Torquere Press

Wait? That Was The Ending? A Writing Mini Rant from Scattered Thoughts

I don’t know how many times lately I have come to the end of a book and then sat back astonished, thinking “wait, that was the ending?”  Usually I am so dumbfounded that I go back a couple of pages and then forward once more, thinking perhaps I missed something  only to find that, nope, the author really did end it that way. Or not end it as the case may be. No epilogue, no afterword, nothing, just a yawning chasm where the ending should be.

Now I know I am not alone in noticing this.  I do read other peoples reviews and they are saying the same thing.   Blah, blah, blah, the book would have been fine except for the ending, or lack of one.  What the heck is going on here?

Writing basics, people.  Stories should have a strong beginning, a strong middle, and a strong ending.  Not once have I ever read that a wimpy, rushed, or just plain non-existent ending is mandatory or even to be desired.  Is this something new in writing I am not aware of?

Now I am not talking about serial stories with the expected and even anticipated cliffhangers.  I am even going to dismiss from this rant those books with dangling plot ends that are a part of a series.  Yes, I know I have whined about a few books in the past that fell in the middle of a series and felt incomplete at the end.  But I am coming around to the authors way of thinking on letting some books in a series have story lines with loose plot threads at the end or even cliffhangers (argh). Those will pull you through to the next story.  Just let us know that the book is a part of a series!  No, I am talking about the stand alone stories that, for whatever reason, have no rational or logical end to them.

I have read books where the main characters just climb into bed (nothing resolved about the future or the angst they went through),  and that’s it.  The end.  I have read books where the author can’t figure out how to end the book, so they rush it, trying to tie up every loose plot thread, and making a ton of unreadable nonsense in the process.  I have read books where the author doesn’t even make the most basic of efforts to tie up anything that has gone before.  Or the worse offender, at least in my mind, the author that takes everything that they had achieved in the story so far and destroys it completely with a ending so forced, so mind-blowingly awful that you can’t believe it’s the same book you just spent all that time reading.  I have even read books where the author put good characters through an intricately planned mystery only to skip out on the denouement or “aha” moment. They might have a secondary character relate the “aha” moment, such a cop out.  Or have a character wake up having “missed out” on all the ruckus.  Well, that leaves the reader missing out too.  Talk about feeling disgruntled and deeply unsatisfied!  Check, please !  We won’t be coming back to that restaurant (or author) anytime soon.

Remember those old movies like Millennium? As the credits roll over the sight of people walking through a portal to a new planet, the letters pop up The End or is it the Beginning?  So cheesy yet some of the books I have read lately make me miss movies like that one.  At least they were trying for something different when ending their story.  I appreciated that even if I laughed about it later.   But even they couldn’t leave well enough alone when it came to the end of the movie.

What is it about writing endings that is so difficult? Most people seem to put all their thoughts and energy into starting their novels and then seem to run out of steam by the time they get to the end.  A few authors have told me that they know where their story is going to end before they write the book.  Others have just the opposite approach, letting the story flow as it wants, uncharted and unknowing.  Neither way guarantees the reader an accomplished ending.   I can’t figure out why I am reading so many bad ones lately.  Has the rise of the eBook let too many authors through the gates that might not otherwise been published? Ah, a rant for another time.

I did run across several websites all bemoaning the same problem in writing endings.  Some of the articles are terrific, laying out pointers on how to write an ending, while some are hysterically unhelpful (kind of like writing an ending).  One Wikihow page includes pictures, like a man with a frowny face, who obviously can’t figure out how to end his story.  Clearly they think pictures will show a writer the way.  Like a sign that stating “The End – This Way” and an arrow beside it.  Oh,  if only it were that simple.

So from me and Joanna Penn of The Creative Penn to you, a few pointers :

  • Don’t cheat and suddenly have everything work out fine. This is lazy and the reader isn’t fooled. For example “And Jesus lived happily ever after”
  • You can surprise the reader but you must also satisfy them. There should be more than one possible ending to a book, so the reader doesn’t just give up as they know what will happen. It’s worth foreshadowing this ending with hints in the rest of the book though so that they are surprised but it is not entirely out of the blue.
  • Some genres have an expected ending that you can’t mess with. If your genre is romance, they have to get together at the end. There’s no getting around this unless you want to change genres! You also need to keep some characters alive if you have a series of books planned.

And from me, always keep in mind the story you started out with at the beginning should still be with you at the end.  Pull it all together in one final, emotionally satisfying product that will keep the readers returning time and again to your craft.   There are reasons you see the same author and same book titles on list after list.  It is because they leave a reader totally satisfied while still wanting more.  More of the story, more of the characters, and more from that author.

So, authors of stories with non-existent or bad endings, I am imploring you.  Find some crit partners, a great editor, take some writing classes, do what you gotta do to hone your writing skills and deliver to us, your readers, a story with all its elements accounted for.  Great strong beginning? Check.  Strong middle that moves your plot forward with great characters and storyline? Check. A strong ending that ties up in a satisfactory and sometimes surprising manner all the plot threads your storyline came with? Check.   Missing a check mark or two? Go back and start over again until someone else, not just you, are happy with the story you have written.

I don’t think this mini rant will in anyway stop the flood of incomplete or poorly  resolved stories.  Think of this as one finger (select one) plugging a hole in a dike that resembles Swiss cheese.  But at least I feel better, hoping to pave the way to better stories one rant at a time.

How do you feel about the books you have been reading?  How many have ended with you thinking, “wait, that was the end?”  Write Scattered Thoughts and tell me your pet peeves about the stories you have read lately.  Help put an end to the ends that leave us gnashing our teeth and pulling out our hair!  I want an ending to leave me cheering, or crying, or satisfied that I spent that time reading that book.  All readers do.  So go, find the path to the perfect The End.  It’s out there, somewhere.  Help it find its way home.  The End.  Or is it the beginning?  Only time and more books will tell.

– Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words

Links:

The Creative Penn, How To Write The Ending of Your Novel by Joanna Penn

How to Write the End of a Novel by. C. Patrick Schulze

How to Write an End of a Novel: 6 Steps (with Pictures) – wikiHow

Review: Dance Only for Me (Dance with the Devil #6) by Megan Derr

Rating: 4.75 stars out of 5

Dance Only For Me coverJackie Black, sorcerer and gunslinger, has a surprise for Roman, his lover of two years.  Jackie has decided to move to the city to be closer to his boyfriend and makes a surprise trip to tell Roman the good news.  But the surprise is on Jackie when he intrudes on a romantic evening Roman has planned with another man, a much younger man.   Heartbroken and lacking a place to stay, Jackie heads out of Roman’s building and straight into trouble.  In a bar in the poorer section of the city, Jackie is befriended by a man who claims to be a supernatural detective who needs help on a case.  That case involves retrieving a magical object from someone who just might also be a killer.

Needing something to take his mind off his pain, Jackie agrees to help the detective and changes the course of his life forever.  For nothing in Jackie’s life is as he wants it to be.  His father is off somewhere in Asia, mourning the loss of his wife and Jackie’s mother, Jackie feels he is not made for love as his last three boyfriends have cheated on him, and his new found friend is dead, dying in his arms moments upon his return.  What is Jackie to do but what a Black always does.  Holster his guns and go get the person who done the crime, or crimes.  He can only hope it won’t cost him his life as well.

If asked, I would be hard pressed to say which of Megan Derr’s fantasy universes is my favorite. but certainly her Dance with the Devil series would be in the top two.  So you can imagine my delight upon hearing that her latest release was a return to that amazing universe and wondrous group of supernatural beings that inhabit it.  Jackie Black and his father Jebadiah Black have appeared briefly in other stories but now Jackie is getting a central role in his own novel, Dance Only for Me (Dance with the Devil #6).  And I have to say I loved it.  It had everything  I have come to expect from Megan Derr and this terrific series.

Jackie Black is an oddity in his world, an amazing thing to say given the creatures that roam the streets and bars of the City.  He is over 70 years old, a sorcerer who wears a Stetson, cowboy boots, duster and uses magical revolvers of the old West to take down miscreants, human and non human alike.    Thin as a whippet, “whipcord” thin as his mother would say, Jackie is a bit of an anachronism, just like his father.  He speaks in the dulcet well mannered tones of a Sheriff in the old West, polite even when aiming his six shooters to kill,  This is our first introduction to him and his story:

Jackie caught the goblin right square between its crazy ass eyes and sighed as the fool thing dropped like a sack of flour to the warehouse floor. He holstered his revolver in a single, smooth move and touched the brim of his hat to the cluster of goblins huddled in the corner. “Ma’am,” he said to the one at the head of the pack, who had hired him to do something about a goblin that had tipped from average goblin crazy to crazier than a pack of elves gone drunk and frisky.

He walked over to the body to make certain it was dead and wrinkled his nose at the smell wafting off it. He’d caught whiffs of it before, but now the thing was holding still it was a sight easier to catch. “Poor thing’s mind done been scrambled like eggs at Sunday brunch.” He tipped his hat back to look up at the head goblin as she approached him. “Ain’t got a clue how he was poisoned, but I were you, ma’am, I’d be checking right careful for a traitor in your midst. This sort of thing is near always personal.”

I loved the dialog that Derr has written for Jackie.  It is so easy to picture him, a spare man of honor, like Gary Cooper in High Noon (google it).  In fact, I loved everything about Jackie, from his background and family life to his current painful predicament as a discarded lover who thinks he will never find the person/being right for him.  His singular code of honor drives his actions as well as his relationships.  And people are drawn to him whether he likes it or not.  The many layers to Jackie will draw in the reader as well, we just can’t help it!

Typical of Derr, it’s not just Jackie who is beautifully characterized but all the beings/people created for the story as well.  Whether it be friend or foe, everyone you will meet between these pages feel real.  They have hidden agendas driven by greed, pain, or a need to set things right.  They  want love or friends or a family or all three.  From a demon called Ned whose pain will make you cry to a young boy, Wyatt, whose dark past has made him older than his years, each and every one will cry out for your affection and attention.  And they will deserve it.  Especially Ned, Wyatt Thorne and a vampire necromancer, Phoenix Fairchild, each so memorable in their own way.  I loved them too.

One of the charms of this series is that couples, people from previous books make appearances throughout the series. Sable Brennus and Christian are here, as is Ontoniel Desrosiers,  Johnny and Grim, and even a dragon or three.  Seeing them here just made me want to go back and start reading each of their books all over again.  Megan Derr has such a wonderful imagination and her creativity just flows through this series like a river of magic. Every type of magic or wondrous being is included here.  Angels, sorcerers, witches, goblins and alchemists, that’s just a start.  There are werewolves, vampires, ghosts and golems too.  They are all present and involved in Jackie’s life and story and we are so much the richer for it.

I came close to giving this story a 5 star rating but there was just a few too many errors here.  Spelling errors, repetition problems and sentences like this one.  “Hope your right, Sheriff.”  Instead of “Hope you’re right, Sheriff”.  An editor should have caught these common problems and didn’t.  That brought the rating down which was a shame.   Tighter editing and better proofreading would have made this story a perfect read.

Those issues aside, I absolutely recommend this story to every person who is a fantasy fan, who love mythical beings come to life and men who hunger after love even though their past has told them it only brings heartbreak.  If you are new to the series, you can read this as a stand alone.  But reading the other stories first make this a much richer and fulfilling adventure.  I really hope that Megan Derr brings back Jackie, Ned and the rest for a followup adventure.  They are all so deserving of it.

The Dance with the Devil series:

Dance with the Devil (Dance with the Devil, #1)

The Glass Coffin

Dance in the Dark (Dance with the Devil, #2)

Midnight (Dance with the Devil, #3)

Ruffskin (Dance with the Devil, #4)

Sword of the King (Dance with the Devil, #5)

Dance Only for Me (Dance with the Devil, #6)

Cover Art by London Burden.  Great job in branding the series by cover but I wish it was a little lighter in tone so we can see the guns.

Book Details:

ebook, 236 pages
Published July 24th 2013 by Less Than Three Press LLC
original title Dance Only for Me
ISBN13 9781620040850
edition language English