Book Review - BADWATER

I enjoyed BADWATER by Toni Dwiggins, an independently published thriller that compares well with traditionally published paperbacks available at any bookstore.  

Cassie Oldfield and Walter Shaws are forensic geologists—a new term to me, but I know about it now thanks to the book—who are called in to assist in the investigation of missing radioactive waste in Death Valley.  The setting is well described, the technology well researched, and the bad guys engineer diabolical plot twists.  The action continues right up to the end.

My only gripe worth mentioning has to do with the narrative perspective.  The book is written in a mix of first and third person that I personally find to be distracting.  I don’t know if this is a recent trend in fiction—this is the second book I’ve recently read that does this—but I find it jarring at each change.  It may well be a personal preference, but I can’t help but penalize a star for it.  

BADWATER gets three stars from me, others who don’t mind the narrative perspective would likely rate it higher.  It is available at Amazon in ebook (at 99 cents as of this writing) and paperback.

I Heard From Laurie the Editor!

My editor, Laurie, was kind enough to send me a short email halfway through her edit of Redemption on the River.  I had to unplug my laptop and take it downstairs to my wife so we could read it together for the first time.  And.....she had nice things to say.

Actually, even nicer than her comments was the fact that she took the time to let me know how it was going.  She normally doesn't send progress reports, but she had somehow sensed from 3,000 miles away how anxious I was and gave me some early feedback.

Whew.  I took some of that just-released pent-up energy and went out for a 38 degree bike ride.  (OBTW, only 22 miles left to go to reach my goal of 1,000 miles for 2011.)

Speaking of pent-up energy, I've already warned Teri that once Laurie's report arrives there is going to be nothing else I'd rather be working on than the book.

Book Review - Super Zombie Juice Mega Bomb

I’m not a big fan of YA—I’m not a YA—but SUPER ZOMBIE JUICE MEGA BOMB is a good YA read about teenagers dealing with a nasty, localized zombie outbreak in their hometown.  The zombies mostly follow the conventional zombie paradigm and rules of engagement outlined in THE ZOMBIE SURVIVAL GUIDE by Max Brooks, save for the fortuitous discovery of an unexpected zombie vulnerability that allows construction of the Mega Bomb.  SCJMB should be enjoyable to any young adult fan of the genre.  

Link to SZJMB on Amazon, the Kindle edition, also available in paperback.

Note:  I'm going to start doing book reviews, focusing on independently published e-books.  I'm hoping that it will be something of a pre-give-back to the independent author community, because I will likely be one myself some day.

Blurb the Blurbing Blurb

In my continuing efforts to keep busy and connected to the book while Laurie ( thebookeditor.com ) takes her red pen to the manuscript I've been working on blurbs.  If I do decide to pursue independent e-publishing the marketing efforts will be entirely up to me and that includes coming up with an irresistible blurb.

I've found that writing them sucks.

My first thought was to simply adapt one of the 100+ queries that I wrote when I was assuming that I would pursue traditional publishing.  Nope, I finally got through my dim brain that a query and blurb are two different animals.  They're both sales pitches, but one is to an agent and reveals a lot or nearly all of the plot, and a blurb is much more of a cryptic tease that induces a reader/customer to buy the book to find out what happens.

Here is my latest effort:


     A guilty conscience, a woman, a twisted enemy—and redemption rides on a riverboat poker game.
     Mississippi steamboats offer escape and Silas Jacobson tries to forget his past by fighting, fornicating, and cheating at cards.  It’s a hell of a good time, but the guilt is always there.
     Eventually Silas finds a purpose, a woman, and love.  He might also find redemption if he can overcome betrayal—especially his own.

     REDEMPTION ON THE RIVER is historical fiction set on the Mississippi River in 1848.

Holy Crap!

Laurie emailed me yesterday with the news that she is going to be starting her edit of Redemption on the River this week.  It will be two or three weeks until she is done and sends me her report.

Holy crap.

What do I do now?

I recently had the idea to write a few short stories featuring minor characters from the book.  I've outlined a few and started on one.  I'll work on that just to keep myself from climbing the walls while awaiting Laurie's verdict.

Tick.....Tick......Tick......Tick......

Time passes slowly when waiting.........

Just to keep myself from going too stir crazy I've written an Historical Notes afterword to Redemption on the River, which gives background on the historical figures and places in the novel.  I don't know if I'll use it or not, but I just had to do something with regard to the project.

I've also been working on a marketing plan for when the time comes.  It's a brave new world of publishing out there, and I want to be well prepared to sally forth when the time comes.

Of course, as we said in Naval Aviation, a plan is just the starting point for doing something else.

Milestone - Off to the Editor

There it is:  Redemption on the River in manuscript form, painstakingly printed on the home system and carefully hand collated, boxed, and entrusted to the USPS for delivery to the editor.

Now comes what is always very difficult - waiting.  Laurie expects to get to it later this month, then it will take her several weeks to go through it.  I'm hoping to hear back from her by mid-December, but it will be a great Christmas present if it shows up by then.  I figure on buckling down to the rewrite by the first of the year.

As I said to Teri, "Well, before long we'll know whether what I've spent all this time working on is complete crap or not."