Uncategorized – Page 102 – One Thousand And One Parsecs

Hmm…short stories?

Kris Rusch has another excellent Thursday post up on her blog, and this one deals with the effect of the ebook revolution on the short story format. Synopsis: short stories stand to EXPLODE in the next few years, and this is good for everybody, especially indie writers.

Getting a story published in a magazine 1) builds a writer’s cred, 2) attracts new readers to the writer’s other works, and 3) pays decently well without giving up copyright for longer than a couple of years. Basically, it’s like getting paid to advertise.

I have to admit, I’m not much of a short story writer, but if Kris’s predictions are right (and they sure make a lot of sense), I might have to take some time and rework my short form game.

To start, I should probably read short stories voraciously. Fortunately, I have like twenty back issues of Leading Edge on my shelf (the best short story I have ever read is “When She Grows a Soul” by Patrick Weekes in issue 46; I reread it on my lunch break today and it made me cry. Seriously). I’ve also subscribed to Clarkesworld magazine, which is only $1.99 per month on the Kindle.

Once I’ve finished the current draft of Desert Stars, I may or may not take off some time to focus on writing short fiction. I’m a little hesitant to do that, though; novels are my first love, and will probably be my bread and butter as this writing career takes off. Still, I need a lot of work on my short form, so maybe it would be worth taking a month or so…not sure yet.

In any case, I discovered via the Kindle Boards that if you release an ebook/estory for free on a competing vendor’s site, Amazon will price match and drop the price to free. Since I probably won’t be able to sell the short stories I’ve epublished, I figure I ought to give that a try. I never really planned to make much money off of them, and “selling” them for free will hopefully attract readers who will buy my novels.

In the meantime, I really should get back to writing. Whether novels or short stories, my bread and butter lies with putting words to paper–electronic or otherwise.

The Swords of Night and Day by David Gemmell

A thousand years ago, a young warrior named Skilgannon helped the princess Jianna escape an attempt on her life. They became lovers, and when she retook her throne, she made Skilgannon her chief general. When she ordered the abject annihilation of her enemies, he loved her too much to refuse her–and thus became Skilgannon the Damned.

Now, the wizard Landis has recalled Skilgannon back from Hell to defeat the tyrant queen known as the Eternal. For hundreds of years, the Eternal has ruled the world, using the arcane arts of a fallen civilization to achieve immortality and crush all who oppose her.

When the Eternal learns of Landis’s treachery, the only hope for freedom lies with Skilgannon, the axeman Harad, the huntress Askari, and the Drenai ranger Alahir. But how can they defeat an enemy who commands nearly all the armies of the world? Who has lived a dozen lifetimes and simply steals the bodies of her clones whenever she is killed?

But most of all, how can Skilgannon defeat the Eternal when she is none other than Jianna, his beloved?

The Swords of Night and Day is a direct sequel to White Wolf, the first David Gemmell novel that I read. I have to admit, I wasn’t particularly impressed with White Wolf; it meandered a lot and didn’t seem to have any clear direction.

That is most certainly not the case with The Swords of Night and Day, however. I was hooked from the very beginning, and could hardly put it down until the shocking, mind-bending twist at the end. It tied up all the loose ends from White Wolf and completed Skilgannon’s character arc in a surprising yet satisfying way.

One of the reasons I think I love David Gemmell so much is because he captures so perfectly the experience of being a man. In that, I suspect that Gemmell is to me what Jane Austen is to most women.

But even though Gemmell’s characters might be crass, vulgar, chauvanistic, and downright detestable at times, there is always something heroic deep inside of them–something worth redeeming. And when he does redeem them, it surprises me how powerful it is–even when he redeems someone I don’t want him to.

With The Swords of Night and Day in particular, one of the things that particularly fascinated me was the fictional cosmology of the Drenai universe. With magic that can resurrect people’s spirits from hell, the story must inevitably deal with questions of the afterlife. Yet even so, there’s still enough ambiguity and latent potential that it never felt stilted or labored. If anything, it felt a bit like Tolkien’s cosmology in The Silmarillion, where all the stuff about gods, angels, and the undying lands only added to the sense of wonder.

I love just about all of David Gemmell’s books, but this one in particular was well worth the time and experience reading it. I wouldn’t recommend starting with this one, though: better to read Legend, White Wolf, and The King Beyond The Gate first. But if you’ve read and enjoyed those ones, you will DEFINITELY love this one. I certainly did.

That Leviathan, Whom Thou Hast Made by Eric James Stone

When Harry Malan’s work transferred him to Sol Station deep inside the sun’s core, he didn’t expect to become a Mormon branch president over more than a hundred alien converts to the faith. The Swales, ancient sun-dwelling beings with their own history and culture, travel the universe by naturally teleporting between stars.

When Harry learns that one of the members of his congregation has been raped, he determines to take it up with the chief Swale. But at several thousand meters long and more than a hundred millenia old, the chief is revered by the Swales as a god incarnate. To make matters worse, the only other eligible female on the station is an atheist xenoanthropologist determined to stop Harry from “polluting” the Swale culture.

In an alien society millions of years older than humanity, where gods were dwelling among mortals long before the birth of Jesus Christ, is there a place for those who convert to any of the human faiths?

This story was awesome, and I’m not just saying that because I’m a practicing Mormon. The story concept was brilliant, the alien world was fascinating, and the issues raised were dealt with in a very balanced way. This is a must read for any Latter-day Saint science fiction writer–or for aspiring writers of any religious faith, for that matter. In fact, Eric James Stone has it available right now on his website for free–so check it out!

My only issue was that the story didn’t feel fleshed out enough. The Swales were so fascinating, I wanted to spend more time with them–I wanted to explore their culture, learn more about their history and evolution, etc. I also wished there were more detailed descriptions to make me feel like I was there.

I think that has more to do with the shortcomings of the medium than anything else, though. The piece is an 8,000 word short story / novelette, so there isn’t a whole lot of room to flesh things out. Still, the world is so fascinating, can you blame me for wanting more?

All things considered, “That Leviathan, Whom Thou has Made” definitely deserves the Nebula Award which it won earlier this year, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it wins a Hugo as well. It represents a significant milestone in LDS literature, and is an excellent mainstream piece as well. Whether you’re Mormon, Christian, Muslim, or whatever, if you’re a religiously devout writer of science fiction, this is a must-read. And even if you’re not, it’s still a great story. Highly recommended.

I’ve never registered on the Absolute Write forums…

…and now I don’t need to.

The publishing industry has turned into the wild and lawless west, complete with lynch mobs and posses, isolated and inbred communities, a gold rush for ebooks, and dirty corporate executives looking to railroad their way over the honest, hardworking authors who just want a plot of land to call their own.

It’s insane–and yet, at the same time, so freaking awesome.

Just five years ago, there was only one real way to make a living as a writer: go with a traditional publisher. But now? Now, there are no rules. Now, you can be a cowboy and still make a name for yourself.

I do want to express my sympathy for Robin, though. Her blog, Write 2 Publish, is an excellent source of information on the changing publishing world, and I’ve always found her commentary thoughtful and insightful. The fact that she was banned from one of the largest online communities of writers (and especially the way in which she was banned) only confirms to me how seriously wrong-headed people are who cling dogmatically to traditional publishing models.

There are two kinds of people in this world…

Guest post: Developing Characters in a Fantasy Setting

Nathan Major is a friend and fellow writing who, like me, has taken the epublishing route for his first novel, Paradise Seekers. I met him through our mutual friend Charlie at Brandon Sanderson’s English 318 class. His book is pretty good; I’m only partway through it right now, but he’s playing with some interesting fantasy concepts and I’m definitely looking forward to seeing how he pulls it off.

I recently appeared on his blog with a guest post on how I develop my characters; for his appearance here, I decided to throw the question back at him. Like a true fantasy author, he answered it with a multi-part epic that is probably only the first installment of a trilogy. He makes some good points, though, and it’s definitely worth reading (and not just for the snarkiness, heh).

On a tangentially related note, I also appeared recently on Charlie’s blog with a post on ebook formatting and book DIY. When you’re finished here, be sure to check it out!

And now, I give you Nathan Major…

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When you think of fantasy, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? Mystical worlds populated with elves, dwarfs, and other magical races? Kingdoms and castles, dark lords and noble heroes? Perhaps you entertain a world that is more supernatural and more interesting than our own, one that would allow you to escape to its enchanted forests and sweeping vistas.

The fantasy genre differs from other forms of fiction (except perhaps science fiction) in that the worlds they take place in tend to be the stars of the stories. Middle-earth and Prydain. Oz and Earthsea. And within these worlds, a classic clash of good vs evil is expected. The characters and story can often take a backseat, with many authors spending years of their lives crafting the perfect magic system, most precise system of fantastical government, and the means to make their elves the best damn elves you’ve ever seen.

This drives me crazy.

I’ve been reading fantasy my entire life, but it wasn’t until a few years ago that I got fed up with the whole thing. I loved The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, but as I dug deeper and picked up more modern fantasy, it all seemed to start blending together. Here is our noble hero, beating the odds to fight against a nameless, oft-hidden dark lord. Here is his spunky princess sidekick slash love interest, his old mentor who dies in act two, and the hardened warrior with a dark secret. While not all books contained these tropes, the main issue still persisted: I wasn’t seeing any new characters.

That was actually what drove me to writing. After reading through a particularly popular fantasy book that was also atrociously generic, I remember tossing the book on the couch and thinking, “I could do better than this!” So I set out to try my damnedest to write a fantasy novel that, yes, was in a fantastic worlds that we wish we could live in, but was populated by people just as interesting and well-developed as the world.

Since I’m severely ADHD, I’m going to break this up into a few key ideas that (hopefully) will get my point across. These aren’t just applicable to fantasy, but it’ll be my main focus.

1) Plan your characters first, before you plan the world.

Simple enough, right? When speaking with most other fantasy authors on the subject of brainstorming, the first things they say are, “Oh, I got the coolest idea for a magic system!” or “This world is going to be amazing…it’s made entirely out of White Chedder Cheese-its!” To which I say, “Ok, but what’s the story? And who are the people influenced by the story?” This is usually met with a, “I don’t know, I’ll figure it out later!” Then I defriend them on Facebook and pretend they never existed.

Ok, so the last part was an exaggeration. But the point still stands: you may have the greatest world ever devised, but so do map-makers, and theirs looks better. What is actually in the book is the plot and the characters, and the world is just what it takes place in. You might have the greatest appendix ever at the end explaining how the Haku-Bula Wolf Tribe’s language is actually a combination of grunts and Swedish, but that doesn’t matter to the average reader. Figure that stuff out after you’ve got a story, because it’s less important.

2) Don’t fall into cliches.

This is a hard one, as discovered by me when writing my third book, Where Gods and Mortals Dance. If you’ll excuse a moment of self-indulgence, when writing this book I had a female princess as the main character. She was a strong character, but due to circumstances beyond her control she was thrust into a situation that was almost impossible for her to fix. I remember trying to design her as strong but still fragile, as parts of her past haunted her and made her ability to rule difficult.

Then I took her to writing group, where the group was divided. Half said she was the, “generic, strong, masculine princess who takes charge,” and the other half felt she was the “weak, needy, spoiled princess” who has everything done for her.

It frustrated me, but also proved a point.

I was relying on two cliches and stereotypes to design my character. I drew from both in an attempt to be original, but that didn’t work. This happens all the time in fantasy. We have the old warrior, somehow inferior to our spunky young farmhand who picked up a weapon for the first time yesterday. We have a dark lord who never actually does any fighting or has any coherent plans, he just sort of sits on his throne of skulls and knives (which is probably black and on fire) and waits for farmhands to come and kill him.

Even in the most original novels, these cliches can become evident. They might not be as blatant as the ones said above, but keep them in mind when writing. Your book doesn’t have to star a teenager. It could star a forty-year-old man who wants to save the world. There doesn’t have to be a Dark Lord at all; the enemy could be something completely different. Stay the hell away from elves, dwarfs, or anything that Tolkien used. And taking Orcs, changing them slightly, and calling them “Orks” doesn’t count as being original, it counts as being a cop-out. Fight the cliché. Make your characters deep and unique.

3) Remember: Everyone is a hero in their own story

Sympathetic villains are a rarity in fantasy. Most of the time we have a group that is distinctly bad, and a group that is distinctly good. You can usually tell by how they live. If they live in trees, clouds, or anything that communes with nature: good. If they live in filth, a swamp, or basically anywhere that looks like it’s under the constant duress of a smoke-machine: evil. Usually bad-guy motives are just “they are bad and hate the good guys,” which is a freaking awful excuse. Oh, and don’t get me started on the “he’s insane, that’s why he wants to destroy the world!” villains. That’s the biggest cop-out of them all and if you use it I want to punch you in the face right now. You are cheapening your characters and your story to make things easier for you. Here’s a revelation: good books aren’t easy. It took Tolkien how long to craft the novel that essentially invented modern fantasy? I’m not saying you should take two decades to make your book, but you should at least have to take more than one sentence to describe your villain’s motives.

The best part about the above expression (which is probably my motto when it comes to developing characters) is that it changes the way you look at your book. Life isn’t black and white: it’s a whole lot of gray. You might see something in black and white, but if you were given a chance to enter someone else’s head, perhaps your view would switch entirely. Nothing is scarier than a completely sane, totally competent villain whose goals just so happen to be the exact opposite of our hero’s. In fact, it makes the reader uncomfortable, because many of them will no longer know who to root for. If you are doing it right, your villain’s motives and values should be just as convincing as the hero’s, which means the reader should be second-guessing their loyalties throughout the book. It makes for a hell of an engaging read, let me tell you.

But this little ditty isn’t just for main characters. Side characters also need to be their own heroes. Sam didn’t just tag along with Frodo because it was a fun thing to do. He knew what had to be done (probably even better than Frodo) and fulfilled that personal quest. Your side characters need to have their own motives and motivations, depth and personality. Don’t’ drag them to Mt. Doom with the only reason being “because the hero was heading that direction anyway.” They should be just as deep (or at least close to the level of depth) as your hero. Make them interesting, and your reader will love them even more.

4) For your characters to be successful, you must know them better than they know themselves

Wow, that’s a long one, and it is sort of off the theme of “broad, overgeneralizing statements” that these bullet points have been so far. At any rate, I’ll try and be brief with this one because it seems self-explanatory.

I have a friend author who, upon designing a character, takes an online “100 questions personality test.” While I’m not saying this is the “go-to” answer for everybody, it can be an extremely helpful tool in understanding a character better. What do they like to eat? What is their taste in women (or men)? If they magically appeared in our world and wanted to hang out, what would you do? These are questions that’ll maybe never be addressed in the story, but you should know these answers. If a character has a name and is in the book for more than a single chapter, you should know everything about them.

This can be hard work, especially if you like having a billion characters. But even if you just have one or two, you really need to be in their heads. Know them. Be them. Imagine them in other situations besides in your novel. And once you really understand what makes your spunky farmhand tick, then you’ll be able to write him in both a convincing and believable way.

5) Write characters you’d like to read about

Figured I’d end this on a simple one. It’s very easy when writing to get the rose-tinted glasses put on, and all of a sudden everything in your book seems perfect. Your characters are a little cliched, but whose aren’t? Your dark lord doesn’t really have a idiom, but he does have a badass axe carved from the ashen bones of the long-lost race of dragons. Who wouldn’t like this book?

Take a step back and think. And if you can’t think of yourself, think of me. A cynical, jaded red-head who writes fantasy only because most of the fantasy currently out there pisses him off. I am your audience. I am biased, blatant, and unbelievably good looking. What would I say?

If you know your characters (see #4!), and you know them well enough then this step shouldn’t be an issue. You’ll like them regardless, because any author gets attached to a character they know every aspect of. In my current novel, Effulgent Corruption, one of the viewpoint characters is complete scum. My initial development of him was a murderous, rampaging madman whose only reason for existence was to kill and destroy. However, as I dug deeper and began to understand the character, he became sympathetic. I realized the man’s goals, what emotional pains he’s been through, and what hurts him now. I knew who he relied on, and what parts of himself he hated.

He quickly became my favorite character.

This should happen with you. You should love your villains, and hope that, should this whole “world-saving hero” thing blow over, their goals will be accomplished. Your side characters should be entertaining and fun, people you’d want to hang out with, just like your hero does. You should know everybody and at least have a shred of sympathy for them. Then, you’ll have great characters.

This, of course, isn’t a complete guide to developing good fantasy characters. Hell, it isn’t really even a very specific one. But I’m almost 100% sure that, should you take these ideas to heart, you can beat the odds and write a fantasy novel that is as interesting in its ideas about elven politics as it is with its elaborate, three-dimensional characters. Fantasy as a genre deserves better, and you (yes, you!) can be the one to do it. So go forth, young author, and write the epic that will shake the Barnes and Nobles across the land!

Plus, it’ll increase your chances that I’ll actually read it, which is a perk in and of itself.

Staying in Provo

So, I have some news. After carefully weighing my options, I decided to stay here in Provo for at least another six months, rather than teach English in Korea for a year.

My main reason was the current pace of change in the publishing world. Originally, I wanted to take a year or two off to build a TEFL career and make some money to support myself as I tried to break in, but with the way publishing is changing, if I did that I would find myself completely lost as soon as got back.

Another reason was that I wanted to be able to focus on building my indie publishing career. Traveling and working abroad would take a lot of energy away from that, which didn’t seem like a good thing to do at this point in my writing career.

Yet another reason was the fact that Worldcon is in Reno this year, and it’s going to be huge. Anyone who’s anyone (at least here in Utah) is going, and it would be supremely foolish to pass up a networking opportunity like that.

And also, I have to be honest: since I’m in a local band now, I kind of want to stick around and see how that works out. Who knows? Maybe we’ll make it big…

So what am I going to do now instead? Probably work odd jobs to support myself, same as I’ve been doing since I graduated. I’ve got one lined up to start next week; apparently, the guys at this alarm company where temped in April were impressed with my computer skills and want me back. Maybe I can turn that into a part time gig once the summer’s up. If not, there’s always the costume factory job in September-October. And of course, I’m still keeping an eye out for local part-time jobs.

And really, all this stuff about getting a “day job” seems to me like another way of saying you can’t make a living as a writer, which strikes me as utter bull crap. Yeah, most people don’t become full time writers–but most people aren’t willing to do what it takes to get there. I am. I’m also fortunate enough to be in a good position to shoot for it. Young, single, no dependents, no debt…it doesn’t get any better than that.

In tangentially related news, my first guest post from my blog tour went live yesterday. My friend Nick Rose interviewed me and asked about epublishing, getting good cover art, what makes novels unique, and why I’m drawn to science fiction.

Nick is an aspiring novelist like me who’s hoping to turn this into a full time career. He’s also a great writer, even if his tastes are a little different than mine (seriously man, how can you NOT love Star Wars? Come on!). He writes mostly horror and reads a lot of manga, which he reviews on his blog. He also updates his blog every day, so check him out!

Tag and such

So my cousin Angela tagged me in this cross-linking truth-or-dare blog game, and it looks fun so I figured I’d participate. Here goes:

Do you think you’re hot?

I suffer from no illusions as to my ability (or rather, lack thereof) to carnally attract the opposite sex. That’s not to say I’m ugly, but when you apply the Pareto principle to dating (and let’s be honest, it’s really more of a 90/10 split), I don’t make the cut.

And you know what? I’m fine with that. Because it only takes one…

What is your current desktop wallpaper?

This glorious image from APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day). It’s enough to make me want to move to Iceland, and that’s saying something.

When was the last time you ate chicken?

I made some awesome fajitas last week, and the chicken was on sale at Maceys. I always cook my own chicken; I hate the precooked frozen stuff.

What were you thinking as you were doing this?

Who comes up with these things anyway? Hmm, I wonder if I could start one…

Do you have nicknames?

I have two internet screen names, which are probably the only nicknames of mine that are still in use (besides the ones people use behind my back). The first is “onelowerlight,” and it’s all over the place. The second I use only on deviant art and a certain fan-fiction site, and it is and shall remain a closely guarded secret.

Tag eight blogger friends…

Alright, let’s do this. LEEERRROYYY…

Gods, Witches, Space & Stars
Kate in Katy
Myself as Written
One Modern Mormon
Truthiness
Fertilizer
Not A Villain (technically a webcomic not a blog, but hey she’s an old friend)
سفريات أنثون

Who’s listed as number one?

My old writing friend Laura, who just got back from an LDS mission in Armenia. Has a lot of interesting and insightful things to say, such as her last post on the difference between strong female characters who are independent vs. strong female characters who are interdependent.

Say something about number five.

Sarah is one of my little sisters, and she just had a baby! Also, she worked for a couple years in a survivalist-oriented wilderness therapy program, and knows how to make traps, kill and eat animals, and make fire with sticks and a bow. Oh, and she’s also hilarious. If I’m ever stranded on a desert island, she’s my first pick for who I’d want with me.

How did you get to know number three?

Chuck? I think she showed up at a writing group meeting when I was VP of Quark. She was never really active in the club, but we also took Sanderson’s 318 class a couple times and went to CONduit in 2008 together. Meh; she’s alright, I guess (jk!).

How about number four?

(who comes up with these questions?)

Mykle is my geekiest brother in law, at least in terms of books and sf&f fandom (linux, that would be Danny). He married Sarah two months after meeting her and I think it was the best decision either of them ever made. He doesn’t blog much, but when he does, it’s always thoughtful and interesting.

Leave a message for number six

Thanks Kindal for the feedback on Worlds Away! Blunt as always but quite helpful.

Leave a lovey-dovey message for number two

For my sister?? Ewwwww…

Seriously Kate, I love your blog. And you have the freaking cutest daughter on the face of the planet. Thanks for making me an uncle!

Do number seven and number eight have any similarities?

Yes, in fact. Aneeka (no. 7) spent a couple years teaching English in Japan; Anthon (no. 8 ) hasn’t spent more than a week or two in the same place (or more than a month or two on the same continent) for the last two years. Let me just say, I am in awe of these world travelers and hope to do likewise at some point in the future.

That’s it folks. At least I have chicken.

Buy me lunch and I’ll teach you how to make an ebook

Okay, this is insane. For a long time, I’ve kept up with Writer Beware as a source for quality news about publishing scams, but now…huh?

Recently, Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Katherine Rusch have been giving a TON of warnings about “agent-publishers” –agents who are electronically publishing their clients when they’re supposed to represent their clients’ interests to publishers.

DWS and KKR have both been unequivocal about this–any agent doing this is running a scam and should be avoided like the plague. And you know what? I believe them. Why? Because using entirely free and/or open source software, I can create a professionally formatted ebook from any of my manuscripts in less than an hour.

Less than an hour.

And I’m not a computer expert either, just a blogger who knows some basic html (which you, too, can learn free of charge at w3schools).

Well, just today I read a post on Writer Beware about these agent-publishers that made my jaw drop. Summary: agents who ran publishing operations used to be considered scammers, but things have changed so that that’s legit now. The phrase that really got to me was “unimpeachably reputable agencies.”

Huh?

According to DWS and KKR, these “unimpeachably reputable agencies” become scammers the moment they start publishing their clients’ works. Clearly, someone is wrong, and my own experience tells me it isn’t DWS or KKR.

Making a professional looking ebook is literally easier than writing a query or a synopsis. Light years easier. Paying someone a commission for doing it is like writing the boy down the street who mows your lawn into your mortgage contract. It makes literally no business sense.

And yet people still think that this agent-publisher things is legitimate? Wha…?

Okay, you know what? If you’re a writer in the Provo/Orem area, I’ll show you everything I know about making an ebook if you’ll buy me lunch. Heck, if you live in Salt Lake and are willing to take me to this awesome Lebanese place, I’ll make a special trip just for you!

I’ll show you what you need to download, install it for you, teach you how it works, and run you step by step through the formatting process until you have a beautiful ebook on your hard drive. I’ll teach you everything I know (which honestly isn’t that much), and I’ll do it all for the price of lunch. Just email me at joseph [dot] vasicek [at] gmail [dot] com, and I’ll write you into my schedule.

Why would I take the time out of my day (and away from my own writing) to do this? Well, for one, I really like Lebanese food. But more importantly, it’s in all of our interests as writers that none of us get caught up in these crazy scams. They don’t benefit us and will actually hurt us all in the long run, if we let them happen.

So yes, once again, if you’re a writer living anywhere between Provo and Salt Lake City, I will show you everything I know about formatting ebooks if you will buy me lunch. I’m not even joking.

And I love Lebanese food. Once we’re finished, I think you will too.

Drawing up the starmaps

I’m a big fan of indirect sequels, where each book tells a standalone story but incorporates many of the same characters as other works and is set in the same world. Sharon Creech did this with Walk Two Moons and Absolutely Normal Chaos: the main character from ANC was a minor character in WTM.

The thing is, I write space opera, which means that each novel spans at least two or three different star systems. After four or five novels, it can get really hard to remember where all the stars are in relation to each other. So, taking my own advice from an earlier post, I drew up a starmap for my universe.

For a pattern, I used these maps of the region of space local to Sol. I’ve since forgotten where I got them; I think wikipedia, or maybe the atomic rockets site:

Since they’re only 2-dimensional, they have some obvious shortcomings, but for my purposes they work just fine. The thing I like the most about these maps is that they show rough distributions of interstellar gas and dust. In my Gaia Nova universe, areas of high density (such as the interiors of nebulae) are off limits to the FTL technology, so finding a way to show that was absolutely critical.

And so, after playing around with MS Paint and The Gimp, this is what I came up with:

It’s definitely a work in progress (seeing as I’ve only got about a dozen stars up so far), but I’ve got to be honest–I geeked out hardcore when I was finished with this thing. Whether you’re writing fantasy or science fiction adventure (which I’d argue is a branch of fantasy), there’s just something about having a map…

The best thing is that it’s REALLY easy to update. If I want, I can throw up half a dozen new stars in fifteen minutes–or rearrange the current arrangement of stars with the simple click of a mouse. That’s good, because I don’t want to spend all my time drawing up maps–the map is just a tool to help me write the stories.

And oh man, I’ve got a lot of stories to tell! 🙂

I Don’t Want to Kill You by Dan Wells

John Cleaver, teenage sociopath and demon hunter, has put his inner monster to work protecting his small town community from supernatural beings. But now, the head demon, known only as Nobody, has come to take him down.

As if that weren’t difficult enough, the most popular girl in John’s class, Marci, has taken a liking to him–and he soon finds that he likes her back. What’s more, she’s not as weirded out by his obsession with the string of murders in their town–in fact, she’s interested in them too.

Just as their young romance begins to blossom, however, a rash of teen suicides makes John wonder: why does he even try if the people he’s trying to protect are just going to throw their lives away anyways? To defeat Nobody, he must search within himself and find the answer.

This book was awesome–like, Return of the Jedi awesome–and I’m not just saying that because the author is a friend of mine. It brings the Serial Killer trilogy to a dramatic and satisfying conclusion. Dan Wells’s storytelling skills are amazing, and he puts them to good use throughout this book.

The thing I loved the most was probably how all the major characters had to sacrifice something huge for the people they loved in order to overcome the evil forces at work in their lives. And the demons–whoa, they were pretty freaky. Supernatural freaky, yes, but in a way that was frighteningly true to life–even more so than the previous demons in the series.

Wells has an excellent handle on character arcs, and he applies that here to the romance subplot with excellent results. The romantic aspect of the novel was both believable and gripping, and made the ending all the more emotional.

If anything, though, I wish he would have played up the love triangle a little more than he did. No spoilers, but there were a couple of shifts toward the end that felt a little abrupt. Not too much, but I thought it could have been done better.

This is definitely an urban fantasy, but one surprisingly close to the real world. Unlike Mr. Monster, where the supernatural aspect came in halfway as something of a shock, I thought the supernatural and real world elements in I Don’t Want to Kill You were blended almost perfectly. Not only was it clear from the beginning that both elements were going to be important, but the feedback loop between the two was handled extremely well. If I ever write urban fantasy, Dan Wells has certainly set a high standard to follow.

All in all, a great book, one I highly recommend. If you enjoy urban fantasy or superhero stories, you’ll probably love this book.