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Finding Your Way Back to Writing

Posted on by J.W. Martin

I wish I was writing a post about how I can’t remember the last time I missed a day of writing. But if you’re anything like me, you go in fits and spurts. Could be days between writing sessions, or weeks, or when life gets really hectic, months.

Long stretches of days and weeks with way too much overtime, a hectic family life, and the crushing state of the world we live in have all contributed to very little writing over the last few years. It wasn’t that long ago that I wrote two books in a year. Now, more than two years without a single book.

But I digress. This isn’t meant to be a pity party of a post. It’s meant to be a celebration.

Because it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been away. It doesn’t matter how many words you wrote, regardless of how many you used to write, how many your writers’ group averages, and it sure as hell doesn’t matter about that one time you went crazy and wrote in the tens of thousands of words.

You’re back. And it always feels good to be back.

Returning always reminds me why I fell in love with writing in the first place. Though I know the words I wrote are going to be full of rusty typos and will one days be edited within a character of their current state, I loved it.

I got to play with words. And play with an entire world I was creating as I went. I write lines that made me feel witty and clever. I wrote lines that I knew would need to be straight up deleted. It doesn’t matter. It was all great. It’s work. And it’s fun. It’s my passion. It’s the thing I wish I could do for a living, but it’s also the thing I know I’ll keep doing for the rest of my life even if I never make a dollar.

And it’s great to be back.

AllDiscussionMotivational MondayWriting

Confidence in writing: Seemingly

Posted on by J.W. Martin

Seemingly.

Nine letters, three syllables, and one massive pet peeve.

The word has its uses, but all too often it’s used under a myriad of reasons that all fall under one umbrella cause: a writer’s lack of confidence.

You see it a lot in cases like, 

“His face contorted, seemingly angry.”

“A seemingly dangerous man.”

“A crowd of seemingly millions.”

Examples like these come from moments of self-doubt where a writer isn’t confident enough to say something. To make a statement. Instead, words like seemingly allow for beating around the bush, skirting the issue, and several other cliches. And seemingly isn’t alone either.

Almost, kind of, apparently, sort of like, and several others that allow someone to hide behind not taking a stance for fear of being called wrong. 

Feels like I’m standing on a soap box at this point, but let me state (with certainty) that the biggest reason these words are my pet peeve is because I often find them in the early drafts of my own writing. 

Yes. I too suffer from a lack of confidence. I think it’s required to do any kind of writing. 

If we look at the early examples, and resist the urge to bring in the issues or show, don’t tell, word selection, and rewriting sentences to make them not suck, we get:

“His face contorted, angry.”

“A dangerous man.”

“A crowd of millions.”

They aren’t great sentences, but they’re stronger. Confident. They say something and dare the reader to question it. And frankly, if your reader isn’t on your side enough to believe that a man is angry, a box is heavy, and water is wet, than you have a much bigger problem on your hands than being afraid to make a statement.

So fear not, fellow scriveners. If you’ve done your research, there’s nothing to be concerned about. Nothing to stop you from making any and every statement in your writing.

It’s your world. It’s your story.

AllBooksReviewsWrap-Ups

January in Books

Posted on by J.W. Martin

Happy February!

What did I read in January? January’s over, right? I don’t know where it went, but it’s gone.

What I Read

The Lies of Locke Lamora
by Scott Lynch

Red Seas Under Red Skies
by Scott Lynch

LOLA was a re-read before heading into RSURS, and I loved it just as much this time as I did the first. Total 5-star rating, then and now.

Red Seas was good, but not great. Sequels are hard to pull off, especially when we’re talking about book two in a trilogy. That being said, Red Seas Under Red Skies is easily a 4-star and gives me high, high hopes for the third book in the Gentlemen Bastards series.

We Were Dreamers: An Immigrant Superhero Origin Story
by Simu Liu

I don’t read a lot of celebrity bios, but I was drawn to this one. I love the MCU and with Simu being a fellow Canadian, I had to jump into this one. I loved filling in the blanks beyond the tidbits I already knew. Actors’ lives always seem so glamorous and otherworldly. It’s nice to hear how human they are.

The Atlas Six
by Olivie Blake

Deep characters and a unique magic system are the earmarks of this one. I think my only beef was a build-up to a third act that seemed to drop severely in its intensity. However, this first book leaves me really wanting to get into the next book.

What I’m In The Middle Of

The Fifth Season
by N.K. Jemisin

Gotta be honest, I’ve been in the middle of this one for a looooong time. Each chapter is like a hearty meal. Not only in the number of pages per chapter but reading Jemisin’s work is… well, work. That’s not a bad thing, but it makes The Fifth Season a book that I can’t always bring myself to pick up on a daily basis.

Babel
by R.F. Kuang

I’ve just started this one in audiobook form, and I’m not sure what I think of it. I don’t read a lot of historical fiction, but so far I’m seeing more “fiction” than “history” and I’m intrigued.

What I Hope to Read This Month

In Writing

I wish I could tell you I made a ton of progress this month, or a decent amount of progress, or even a pitiful amount of progress. Anything would be better than zero, which is what I got.

I sent one new query and received one rejection. Huzzah!

Have a good February!!

AllWriting

Querying is a Special Kind of Hell

Posted on by J.W. Martin

This isn’t news to anyone who’s ever been in the query trenches. Suffering from this very process is one of the most inclusive clubs there is.
For those who haven’t been here (or never will) querying is the process that authors take to attempt to get their book(s) into the hands of literary agents or maybe publishers. It involves sending a query letter that takes your 100,000-word book and trying to get its pure awesomeness across in a matter of a couple hundred words.

We authors build a list of agents who work with their genre of book. We personalize each one and send with that agent’s specifications. Most want a writing sample, but the length always varies. Three chapters, ten pages, etc. And many want a synopsis: the most painful document an author can create.

Then, once you’ve stared at your query letter for far too long, you hit send a hope you haven’t made any stupid typos. Spoiler alert: you probably did. But typos are impossible to see before sending, and very obvious after the fact. Then the waiting begins.

Querying is taking something extremely personal, putting it up on a pedestal and saying, “Here. Judge me. Harshly.”

It’s the act of offering your heart to someone and then having to wait months to hear an answer.

It’s being told “no thank you,” and worse, over and over again. Exclusively.

It’s not much fun for literary agents either. These people are drowning in query letters. They never stop coming. There’s no such thing as catching up because, for every one they read through, three more have arrived in the meantime. And those that respond to all their queries are burdened with stepping on someone’s dream with each response, even though their responses are friendly and professional.

Among the many rejections, every writer eventually gets a “full request” arrives. This is when an agent likes your query letter and requests to read the entire book. It’s one of the most exciting responses a writer can get. And I can tell you that it feels like a big step forward. However, this is just the next stage and the odds are still that you’re going to hear a “no thank you.” It doesn’t matter if you go into this stage knowing the odds. A “no” at this point is crushing. More crushing than a standard query rejection. It usually requires a little me time after getting one of these bad boys.

So why do we do it?

Well, there aren’t that many other ways to publish traditionally. There are non-traditional ways, but that’s a whole other post.

Every writer wants to have a New York Times best-selling book. Every agent wants to discover the author with the next big book.

Querying requires persistence and an eternally-springing sense of hope. There are lots of success stories out there. People are signed to publishing contacts all that time. I’d love to tell you that it pays off to stick with it, but I’m still waiting for my success story.

Despite the odds, despite my personal experience, I look at every query I send potentially as “the one.”

AllBooksReviews

The Journey into Booktube…

Posted on by J.W. Martin

How do I do this blogging thing again? Words? Text? Paying attention to the same thing for longer than a minute?

These are all things that seem lost to me (and many others) since sometime in March when the thing-that-shall-not-be-named began. However, the one silver lining to come out of that was the time to try something I’ve been thinking of for months and months. YouTube.

No. Not watching it! I’ve done that. A lot. Probably too much, honestly. I’m talking about following in the footsteps of the Bionic Book Worm, I Should Read That, Breakeven Books, and so many others.

So here I go.

A Book & A Beer is an idea that I had where each episode is a review/discussion of a book as well as a craft beer. It’s a little something for book lovers, a little something for beer lovers, and a big something for those who love both books and beer.

This first episode features A Peculiar Peril by Jeff VanderMeer and Barking Squirrel from Hop City Brewing Co.

Please be gentle.

AllBooksReviews

Deal With The Devil by Kit Rocha — Spoiler-Free Review

Posted on by J.W. Martin

 

DEAL WITH THE DEVIL
by Kit Rocha

Tor Books
July 28, 2020

From Goodreads:

Nina is an information broker with a mission–she and her team of mercenary librarians use their knowledge to save the hopeless in a crumbling America.

Knox is the bitter, battle-weary captain of the Silver Devils. His squad of supersoldiers went AWOL to avoid slaughtering innocents, and now he’s fighting to survive.

They’re on a deadly collision course, and the passion that flares between them only makes it more dangerous. They could burn down the world, destroying each other in the process…

Or they could do the impossible: team up.

Thanks to the good people at Tor Books and Raincoast Books for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book had me with four words: “mercenary librarians,” and “super soldiers.” Nothing after that mattered. 

After receiving the ARC, I looked into the author a bit since I had never heard of Kit Rocha before. That’s when I saw Kit Rocha usually writes erotica. That threw me for a loop! I’ve never read erotica and never been interested in reading any. But all of a sudden I start wondering if I’m about to crack open an erotica novel with mercenary librarians doing super soldiers and vice versa. And now that I’ve finished the book, I still don’t know if that’s what I read or not. 

It may not sound like it, but that’s a compliment. As someone who has no frame of reference for erotic books, I couldn’t tell you if this qualifies, but I also can’t say that it doesn’t. Sure, there’s sex, but nowhere near what I would have thought would be in an erotic story (again, no frame of reference.) What I know I found was a great story full of action, suspense, and pretty decent characters.

Oddly enough, considering my lack of interest in erotica (and romance) I found I really enjoyed those aspects of this book. The main characters with their back and forth, their longing for each other, mixed with a mistrust for, well… everything, was a a roller-coaster ride that had me burning through pages.

The chapters bounce us around from Nina’s head to Knox’s, and getting to know what she’s thinking, and what he’s thinking, but seeing them unable to connect the dots was maddening. It’s like when the staff of The Office was watching that logo bounce around the tv screen, desperately wanting it to perfectly hit the corner. And then it finally does and everyone cheers. That’s what the relationship felt like.

The plot could have used a little more… something. It was fine. There’s nothing wrong with it, and I wasn’t bored, but I just wanted a little more. Instead of it being an integrated aspect of the story, it was more or less an excuse for the characters to spend time together and be in a certain place. The stuff that happened could have happened anywhere for a number of reasons. I guess I wanted something that only could have happened in one a specific place because the setting and everything else was so deeply engrained with everything else.

Then again, maybe that’s me expecting too much.

Overall this book was a ton of fun to read. I looked forward to picking it up each time, and if there’s a sequel it will definitely be on my TBR. 

Fun fact about this post: Kit Rocha is the pseudonym for co-writing team Donna Herren and Bree Bridges.

AllMemesTop 5 Tuesday

Top 5 Opening Lines

Posted on by J.W. Martin

Confession time. I’m hijacking this Top 5 Tuesday post and turning it into a writing/brag post. (Sorry Shanah!)

I’m terrible at remembering which books I’ve read had great opening lines. So normally, I’d just tap out on this week’s, but instead I thought I’d take the opportunity to share the opening line to the book I’m currently writing. I could use the feedback, and I think it’s a pretty darned good one. One of the best opening lines of all time? Certainly not. But if it makes people want to read the second line, it’s done it’s job, hasn’t it?

This story begins the same way all the best Rex Roderick stories begin: fighting over a woman.

I’m about 70K words into this novel so far, and I’m loving (almost) every minute of it. I think I’m going to end up being prouder (more proud?) of this book than any of the others. Let’s hope that’s a good sign toward this being the one that finally gets some attention from literary agents.

Fun fact about this post: I have an entire trilogy planned out in my head for this one, which hasn’t happened before.
AllMemesTop 5 Tuesday

Top 5 Series I Want to Start

Posted on by J.W. Martin

Top 5 Tuesday is created by the prolific and always entertaining Shanah, the Bionic Book Worm. This week we’re talking about series, and ones that we haven’t started yet, but really want to.

I have a confession when it comes to series. I’m GREAT at starting series. I’m just not always great with continuing and finishing them. If I’m being honest with myself, it’s probably about 50/50. Regardless, here are a few of the series I’ve got my commitment-challenged eyes on:

 

       

The Murderbot Diaries
by Martha Wells

 

   

Likelike
by Jay Kristoff

 

 

The Band
by Nicholas Eames

 

 

The Locked Tomb
by Tamsyn Muir

 

   

The Divine Series
by Robert Jackson Bennett

 

Fun fact about this post: I own at least the first book of all these series. YAY!
AllBooksReviews

Shorefall by Robert Jackson Bennett — Spoiler-Free Review

Posted on by J.W. Martin

SHOREFALL
by Robert Jackson Bennett

Del Rey Books
April 21, 2020

From Goodreads:

The upstart firm Foundryside is struggling to make it. Orso Igancio and his star employee, former thief Sancia Grado, are accomplishing brilliant things with scriving, the magical art of encoding sentience into everyday objects, but it’s not enough. The massive merchant houses of Tevanne won’t tolerate competition, and they’re willing to do anything to crush Foundryside.

But even the merchant houses of Tevanne might have met their match. An immensely powerful and deadly entity has been resurrected in the shadows of Tevanne, one that’s not interested in wealth or trade routes: a hierophant, one of the ancient practitioners of scriving. And he has a great fascination for Foundryside, and its employees – especially Sancia.

Now Sancia and the rest of Foundryside must race to combat this new menace, which means understanding the origins of scriving itself – before the hierophant burns Tevanne to the ground.

Thanks to the good people at NetGalley and Del Ray Books for providing me with an eGalley in exchange for an honest review.

So, this is book two of The Founders Trilogy, and now I need book three. Now. Right now. Go ahead, RJB. I’ll just sit here and wait. *checks watch, looks around for 3 seconds, checks watch again* Okay, maybe I can’t just sit around waiting for it, but I’m not sure how I’m supposed to keep living on in quarantine without the next book!

What was so good about it? Well, I’m glad you asked. My answer is simple. Everything.

It’s these characters! 

In the start of book one, I didn’t know how to feel about any of them. Who am I supposed to like, and who do I hate? Who’s a good guy, who’s a bad guy? By the end, I still didn’t really know who was good or bad, but I loved them all. This rag tag group of survivors continue doing the one thing they seem best at: surviving while cutting you with sarcastic quips.

Between Foundryside and Shorefall, our cast of characters have been busy. They’ve been building. Creating a life for themselves that is part of what they used to be and partly something new. Their relationships have developed into something deeper and more meaningful and they’ve all changed a little as people. And none of this is given in an info dump. It’s something you see for yourself as the pages turn.

It’s this magic system!

This might be my favourite magic system I’ve ever read. RJB takes the time to acknowledge the science of how things work just before he shows you how the rules of physics, time, distance are snapped in half for our enjoyment. It’s not quite magic and science working hand-in-hand, but I’m a reader who really appreciates when science is addressed.

It’s this writer!

Robert Jackson Bennett might be a poet with prose, but I couldn’t tell you. Not only because I wouldn’t trust myself to make such a bold distinction, but also because I was relentlessly pulled through the pages without the time to look at sentence structure, style of prose, or choice of words. RJB is effortless to read. As someone who often stops dead in the middle of a page to ask myself, “why would the author use that word?” I can’t recall a single thing making me stop to ask myself anything.

It’s this trilogy!

When I found myself near the end of the book, and thinking I had reached the books ending, I felt a little disappointed. It was a better ending that I had read in a lot of books, but it wasn’t the kind of ending I expected after Foundryside. But the thing is, that wasn’t the ending. I turned the page, the ending began, and I could barely hold on to my seat! Chaos isn’t a wild enough word. 

Shorefall takes everything you knew from reading Foundryside, and changes it all. You think you know the characters, and they change. You think you know the magic system, and it expands. You think you know Tevanne, and it sheds its skin and becomes something new. 

RJB, if you happen the read this, just tell me what I need to do to get book three out of you. Keep in mind that the law frowns on human sacrifice. I’m not saying it’s off the table, just know the part about the frowning.

Fun fact about this post: This is the earliest I’ve ever posted an ARC review!

AllMemesTop 5 Tuesday

Top 5 Books that Made Me Laugh

Posted on by J.W. Martin

Top 5 Tuesday is created by the always prolific Shanah, the Bionic Book Worm, and this week we’re talking about books that really tickle the funny bone. And I don’t mean books that had a humorous line, or some quip that brought a smile to your face. I’m talking about books that made you literally LOL!

Neanderthal Opens the Door to the Universe
by Preston Norton

 

Whenever I’m confused with why I keep requesting ARCs when I clearly don’t have time for them, I remember this book. I wasn’t expecting much, but it was one of the first “big company” ARCs I was able to get. Then, I end up finding a spirit animal in Cliff (Neanderthal) and an insanely funny book.

“My fight-or-flight response was currently telling me to get the hell outta there. Except that my fight-or-flight response had a third, less-evolved option called deer-in-the-headlights.”

 

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
by Douglas Adams

A classic. And timeless. I’m sure there are piles of books that were funny during their time, but age has a way of removing relatability or making a shocking punchline seem banal and obvious. This however, retains all of its original magic. Clever, witty stuff that is keeps being funny even with re-reads.

“For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much—the wheel, New York, wars and so on—whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man—for precisely the same reasons.”

 

A Man Called Ove
by Fredrik Backman

This book wrecked me. Oh, sure, it has comedy and plenty of it. It’ll make you laugh one moment and melt your heart the next. Then just as it allows your heart to become something as stable as jello, STOMP! But, yes. Lots of funny!

“Now you listen to me,” says Ove calmly while he carefully closes the door. “You’ve given birth to two children and quite soon will be squeezing out a third. You’ve come here from a land far away and most likely you fled war and persecution and all sorts of other nonsense. You’ve learned a new language and got yourself an education and you’re holding together a family of obvious incompetents. And I’ll be damned if I’ve seen you afraid of a single bloody thing in this world before now….I’m not asking for brain surgery. I’m asking you to drive a car. It’s got an accelerator, a brake and a clutch. Some of the greatest twits in world history have sorted out how it works. And you will as well.” And then he utters seven words, which Parvaneh will always remember as the loveliest compliment he’ll ever give her. “Because you are not a complete twit.”

 

Furiously Happy
by Jenny Lawson

This was another surprise. Not that I wasn’t expecting comedy. Everyone and their mom told me this book was funny. I went in with a bit of skepticism. How can it be that funny? It is. It’s that funny.

“Like my grandmother always said, “Your opinions are valid and important. Unless it’s some stupid bullshit you’re being shitty about, in which case you can just go fuck yourself.”

 

A Confederacy of Dunces
by John Kennedy Toole

This one is a very different kind of comedy. The lines themselves aren’t funny. The situations aren’t necessarily funny. But the main character, Ignatius J. Reilly, is really, really funny, even though he’s never trying to be. He’s funny in his audacity, the things he’s willing to say, the apparent lack of shame he has in everything he does. All made more interesting by the idea that the author just might have been writing something semi auto-biographical…

“I am at the moment writing a lengthy indictment against our century. When my brain begins to reel from my literary labors, I make an occasional cheese dip.”

Fun fact about this post: LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!