AllLifeWriting

The Week of No Blogging

Posted on by J.W. Martin

You may have noticed I pretty much wasn’t here last week. Probably not, though. Last week was nuts. There were highs, there were lows, frustrations, and feelings of success I have never experienced before. 

Let me go back the full week. It’s Friday as I write this, so last Friday my wife and I decided to throw the family in the van and go to autorama. It’s only an hour away, so it wasn’t a massive trip, but I had just heard Seth Rollins was making an appearance there. He’s my son’s favourite wrestler and the opportunity seemed too perfect to skip. As a bonus, the man helping Seth Rollins looked familiar. I’ve been a wrestling fan my whole life, so I was wracking my brain trying to figure out why as we stood in line. Then it hit me! The man in question was none other than legendary referee Tim White. I asked his to pretend to disqualify me in the picture but he refused and stated that he had never disqualified anyone in his career.

On Saturday, I took my son to a birthday party/sleepover only to find out that it was the wrong weekend. Luckily my son’s disappointment was quickly smashed by the plans to buy a bunch of junk food and invite some friends over to watch Spider-man: Into the Spiderverse. 

By the way, if you haven’t seen Spiderverse yet, you’re missing something truly special. Whether you’re a comic book fan or not, whether you like animated movies or not, this is something I feel like everyone should watch. It won an Oscar, for crying out loud! Just go watch it and thank me later. 

Sunday rolls around and the furnace starts to act up. I kept it running, but this would prove to demolish a good portion of the remaining week. More on that later. 

Monday passes without any real event. Work. Play rehearsal. And I call to have someone come look at the furnace. A lot of you can see where this is going.

Tuesday has be staying home from work until the technicians can diagnose my furnace. They do, and I need a new one. You might be thinking some technicians will always recommend a new furnace. But my furnace is almost 50 years old. Putting money into a furnace that old has never been recommended by anyone.

Now the real problem of the week settles into place. The old furnace has stopped working, and the new one needs to be ordered. I live in Canada, and it’s winter. For 2 days, we survived in the house with nothing more than those little space heaters for warmth. I have to say, they do an impressive job, but it was still cold ALL THE TIME.

So Tuesday, Wednesday, and most of Thursday go by like an iceberg floating in the Tundra. 

Thursday, I discover a twitter party event called Pitch Wars. Any unrepresented writer, with a finished unpublished manuscript, is invited to tweet a pitch for their book using the #PitMad hashtag. Agents taking part then browse these tweets and anyone who get a like from a literary agent is officially being asked to query that agent. 

I’m proud and thrilled to let you all know that over the course of a few tweets, I got 3 likes!

I know what some of you are thinking: Oh, big deal. 3 likes. 

To me, it’s a massive deal. It’s not a lot of interest, but it’s the most interest/interaction I’ve had to date. I sent the queries later that night. Strike while the iron is hot, right?

And that brings us back to Friday. Life seems to be back to normal, at least for the moment. And I have to say, I’m pretty exhausted. This week was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster. I can only hope that it turns into the next step in my road to being published, as well as many, many years of reliable heat in my house.

Fun fact about this post: The header image is the first of many visual changes that this blog will see over the next while. I’d love to hear what you think about it.
AllMemesTop 5 Tuesday

Top 5 Book Spines

Posted on by J.W. Martin

This week, Shanah’s Top 5 Tuesday asks about our favourite book spines. This was a tough one for me, because while I own a fair number of books, it’s nowhere near the amount of books that I’ve read. Audiobooks, ebooks, library books, etc. There are probably some really lovely spines among those books, but I can work with what I have. So here they are:

‘Nuff said.

Fun fact about this post: I’ve only read 1 out of my 5 choices.
AllWIPpet WednesdayWriting

WIPpet Wednesday | Evolution

Posted on by J.W. Martin

WIPpet Wednesdays is a blog hop where writers can share a snippet from their WIP. The only stipulation is that the excerpt is somehow related to the date. Be sure to check out some of the other lovely WIPpet snippets here. Thank you Emily Wrayburn for hosting.

So, I’m nearing the end of the first draft of my WIP. I’m having a little trouble getting over that final hump, but it’s SO CLOSE I CAN ALMOST TOUCH IT! I’m hoping that this post will get me a little more excited about this ending I’ve been working towards and get me across the finish line.

A little about this WIP, Evolution:

Faced with imprisonment, Kai, Coak, and Micah are given a chance to earn their freedom by working together to perform a series of heists. Simple for people of their considerable skills, except that they can’t stand one another. Not that it’s the fault of any one of them. They’ve each been raised by their people to treat the others of Fulcrum with disdain and mistrust. But what choice do they have? Whether the heists go right or wrong, the situation for the three youths will get nothing but worse as they figure out the true intentions of the heist and discover that nothing is as it seems.

So, on this 27th day of the 2nd month, I decided to share 27 lines from chapter 2. I hope you enjoy:

Micah never realized how much it sucked to travel by foot until his pack was too water logged to ignite. Flying wasn’t just fun, it was a much more efficient way travel. It took less energy and far, far less time. Sure, there were a certain level of intellectual requirement to flying, but he was used to excelling at anything requiring intelligence.

His fight with the web-head had ended on the coast south of the Mountaineers, but he couldn’t go there for repairs. Maybe if the casing needed some work, or if he needed a new short sword. They wouldn’t be able to do a thing with the delicate inner workings of the pack.

The Swimmer commune was the west of where he washed up, but he’d find no help there either. If he started talking about what the pack needed they’d probably look at him like he was speaking a different language and end up just offering him some kind of fish, like that would fix anything.

There was the chance of finding Kai at that commune, but probably a slim chance. A Flier comes calling and all the Web-heads would protect each other.

Micah decided to head northeast. That would put him on a path that run straight through The Festival. It wasn’t the most fun to be had in the Crucible, but there was usually a few people to mock, and a few to entice into a more private meeting. More importantly than that, he’d be able to find someone to repair his pack. Or at least someone he could buy a new one off of. His mother wouldn’t be happy about incurring that cost, but Micah was her burden to bear.

He walked all through the night. What choice did he have with no pack, no place to go, and nowhere to sleep? By the time he arrived at the Festival it was barely morning and everything was still being set up.

In the middle of the festival grounds men were erecting a series of tents for the cross-breeding ceremonies. Every year at the festival, each of the sub-species would offer a few of their most virile and fertile young people. Each person would be matched up with someone of another sub and they’d try to create a new life.

Micah considered himself a fairly open-minded guy, but the thought of ending up alone in one of those tents with a stranger, while people sat around the outside with expectations, made his stomach turn. Well, depending on the stranger.

The Festival runners always gave a long-winded speech about the historical unrest and the lasting truce. Apparently, trying to cross breed was an attempt to strengthen the bonds between the subs.

There it is. It’s very rough, but as I said, first draft. I hope you enjoyed it a little, or at least that it didn’t totally suck.

Fun fact about this post: Writing this Sunday night and watching the Oscars. Of all the people I thought would give an inspiration speech that hit home with me, I did NOT think it would be Lady Gaga.
AllMemesTop 5 Tuesday

Top 5 Books for Slytherins

Posted on by J.W. Martin

It’s the final Tuesday of Harry Potter month for Shanah’s Top 5 Tuesday. Slytherins are last. Not sure if this is Shanah saving the best for last, or putting her least favourite house last.

While my own wife is Slytherin, these aren’t necessarily books for her as much as books for people that are ambitious, shrewd, cunning, and strong.

Six of Crows book cover

Six of Crows

If Kaz Brekker isn’t a Slytherin, then I don’t know who is. The green and silver might not appreciate all the moments where someone pulls some death defying feat for another’s safety, but they’d definitely appreciate Kaz.

Themis Files

Our narrator is pure Slytherin material. Don’t like him? He doesn’t care.

To Kill a Kingdom

Large parts of this book seems to be able people who are out for themselves.

Nevernight

Nevernight

If murder and assassination was a class at Hogwarts, it would be full of Slytherins (and one mis-understood Hufflepuff.)

How to Win Friends and Influence People

They might not be so worried about the friends part, but the rest, absolutely.

Fun fact about this post: J.K. Rowling claimed that as far as she was concerned, the legendary wizard Merlin would have been in Slytherin house.
AllBooksReviews

And so it goes…. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Posted on by J.W. Martin

SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE
by Kurt Vonnegut

Originally Published in 1969

From Goodreads:

Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time, Slaughterhouse-Five, an American classic, is one of the world’s great antiwar books. Centering on the infamous firebombing of Dresden, Billy Pilgrim’s odyssey through time reflects the mythic journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we fear most.

I always think to myself, I should read more classics. Sometimes I marvel at a masterpiece and shame myself for not reading it earlier. Other times I find myself trying to figure out why said book was a classic. Slaughterhouse-Five is somewhere between. 

Now before you light the torches and hoist the pitchforks, I still found a lot to like. The ideals were phenomenal. In particular, the way the humans were viewed from an alien perspective. The way the things that we do out of common sense flipped and made to look like the furthest thing from sensical was very thought-provoking.

The writing itself was hypnotic. So simple, but flowed like water. Each one seemed to be the perfect word and it all made the reading rather effortless. I’ve often heard that Vonnegut was notorious for publishing his first drafts. If that’s true, this level of writing is even more impressive.

My last bright spot was the premise in general. A man who travels across his own personal timeline. This concept of time not being a linear thing is something that’s been played with in many, many science-fiction stories. I even have a few ideas in my own repository that would play on this same concept. 

My problems come in with two of the most crucial elements of a story in my own opinion. Plot and characters.

I didn’t feel like I knew any of the characters any more than I know that guy who I see running most evenings while I walk the dog: we recognize each other and give an awkward nod, but that’s about it. Everyone just feels so two dimensional. None of them travel with our main character, Billy Pilgrim, so they kind of only exist when Billy needs them to.

And then plot. As I said, the premise is something truly special, but the plot isn’t. It’s just a guy visiting different parts of his life. Sure, one of those parts is on completely different planet, but even in an alien setting, there was no real excitement.

I’ll be the first to admit that I may just not be capable of appreciating a plot that doesn’t have action packed into every corner. It might surprise you, but I still feel like everyone should read this book.

Fun fact about this post: For my whole life, I thought it was called Slaughterhouse V…
AllFirst Impression FridayMemes

First Impression Friday | Armada by Ernest Cline

Posted on by J.W. Martin

Welcome to another First Impression Friday. In case this is your first time, here’s the rundown:

• Based on this sampling of your current read, give a few impressions
and predict what you’ll think by the end.
• Did you think you’d love and ended up hating it? Or did you think
you’d hate it and wound up loving it? Or were you exactly right?
• Link back to Storeys of Stories so I can enjoy reading all the
First Impression Fridays out there!

Let’s talk about Armada by Ernest Cline.

Zack Lightman has spent his life dreaming. Dreaming that the real world could be a little more like the countless science-fiction books, movies, and videogames he’s spent his life consuming. Dreaming that one day, some fantastic, world-altering event will shatter the monotony of his humdrum existence and whisk him off on some grand space-faring adventure.

But hey, there’s nothing wrong with a little escapism, right? After all, Zack tells himself, he knows the difference between fantasy and reality. He knows that here in the real world, aimless teenage gamers with anger issues don’t get chosen to save the universe.

And then he sees the flying saucer.

Even stranger, the alien ship he’s staring at is straight out of the videogame he plays every night, a hugely popular online flight simulator called Armada—in which gamers just happen to be protecting the earth from alien invaders.

No, Zack hasn’t lost his mind. As impossible as it seems, what he’s seeing is all too real. And his skills—as well as those of millions of gamers across the world—are going to be needed to save the earth from what’s about to befall it.

It’s Zack’s chance, at last, to play the hero. But even through the terror and exhilaration, he can’t help thinking back to all those science-fiction stories he grew up with, and wondering: Doesn’t something about this scenario seem a little…familiar?

We keep things one-hundred here, and I’m a little worried. Ready Player One is probably my favourite book of all time, what could possibly live up to it? Nothing, right? That’s why I don’t hold books up to it. Except for when I’m reading the only other book by that very author.

Maybe I wouldn’t be so concerned about my bias sneaking in if it wasn’t for the already constant pop culture referencing happening in the opening chapters. You could literally call this kid Wade and nothing would change. However, there’s lots of time for that to change.

“But, Joe,” you say. “Wouldn’t you love to read another RPO?” And I don’t quite know how to answer that. I suppose I do, but like any good sequel, there needs to be a mix of old and new. Right now it’s feeling like a lot of old, and it’s not even a sequel!

My Prediction: I can’t talk about this right now!

Fun fact about this post: The front cover on this one is beginning to……. open itself?

https://www.instagram.com/p/BuJwlzIll2p/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

AllBooksReviews

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch | SPOILER-FREE

Posted on by J.W. Martin

DARK MATTER
by Blake Crouch

Random House
July 26, 2016

From Goodreads:

Jason Dessen awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits.

Before a man Jason’s never met smiles down at him and says, “Welcome back, my friend.”

In this world he’s woken up to, Jason’s life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is not an ordinary college physics professor, but a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable. Something impossible.

Is it this world or the other that’s the dream? And even if the home he remembers is real, how can Jason possibly make it back to the family he loves? The answers lie in a journey more wondrous and horrifying than anything he could’ve imagined—one that will force him to confront the darkest parts of himself even as he battles a terrifying, seemingly unbeatable foe.

From the author of the bestselling Wayward Pines trilogy, Dark Matter is a brilliantly plotted tale that is at once sweeping and intimate, mind-bendingly strange and profoundly human—a relentlessly surprising science-fiction thriller about choices, paths not taken, and how far we’ll go to claim the lives we dream of.

Dark Matter is the thinking reader’s science-fiction. Some might think all sci-fi is for readers who think a lot. How else can you keep sense of quantum realms, pocket universes, and nano particles? That’s a whole other conversation, and it’s not what I’m talking about anyway.

There’s a somewhat philosophical question that this book throws at you. One that made me really think and question things about myself. But before we get into that, let’s talk a bit more about the book at face value.

The story is pretty great. I’m surprised this one isn’t already a movie or mini-series, because it really should be. It’s smart, and unique. A few of the people that recommended it to me kept talking about all the twists and turns and that they didn’t see a single one of them coming. I have to be honest, I saw most of them coming, though I think that had to do more with having watched way too many episodes of Doctor Who, than any lack on the book’s part.

That being said, there was still some stuff that surprised me. So I think I can confidently say that no matter your experience with sci-fi, this one will provide you with at least a few surprises.

And don’t be afraid of that dreaded sci-fi label I slapped on this one. I heard a great line once, calling a book “sci-fi for people that hate sci-fi.” I think this one qualifies.

By that, I mean there aren’t spaceships. The story doesn’t take place among the blackness of space. Of course there is some sciencey stuff in it. It is called Dark Matter; a substance that is really only understood by astrophysicists. Despite all that, there’s nothing that going to send you looking for a text book just to understand what’s happening.

There’s at least one person reading this right now who’s yelling at the computer screen, “What about the philosophical question?! That’s the only reason I kept reading this crappy review!”

First of all, that’s hurtful.

Secondly, okay. Here it is:

To me, the book seemed to ask, “If you could go back and change the big decisions in your life, would you do it?”

At the core of that question in another: “Are you happy with your life?”

We all have things that happened in the past that we think, “If I could go back in time…” But would you really? If you’re happy with where you are in life right now, than can you really regret any decisions or events of the past? Each one of them contributed to your current situation in their own way. Change one and who knows where you’d be? Or who you would be?

Well, that got a little deep!

To sum up, Dark Matter is a fun read that poses some potentially deep questions. Just like good “science fiction” should.

Fun fact about this post: I heard, “Sci-fi for people that hate sci-fi,” connected to Here and Now and Then by Mike Chen.
AllMemesTop 5 Tuesday

Top 5 Books for Hufflepuffs

Posted on by J.W. Martin

Here we are in week 3 of HARRY POTTER MONTH in Shanah’s Top 5 Tuesday! So far we’ve covered books for Gryffindors and Ravenclaws. Today we move on to those friendly, super-cuddly, Cedric Diggory, probably-should-have-had-Neville-Longbottom-y HUFFLEPUFFS!

Neanderthal Opens the Door to the Universe

At first this book seems more like a Slytherin thing. Everyone hates everyone else, and insults fly even more often than fists. However, it takes a quick turn and by the end of this book the message is very clear. Friendship is everything. So be nice, you jerks.

The Art of Racing in the Rain

Is there anything more just or loyal that the relationship of a man and his faithful dog? Maybe. Why are you asking me? I’m a Ravenclaw.

Graveyard Book

I’m quickly realizing that out of all the Hufflepuff qualities, I’ve really latched onto the Loyalty aspect, because once again that’s the strongest theme going in this book.

They Both Die at the End

Yup. More loyalty.

Grim Lovelies

Grim Lovelies centers around a main character who is completely willing to do whatever anyone asks of her and does it with a smile on her face, and is loyal to her master despite some shady treatment. She seems a girl without an ounce of threat within her. Until you mess with the people she loves. Then she’s like a feral badger. And she does magic.

Fun fact about this post: Next week is the 4th and final Harry Potter Top 5 list. Slytherins.
AllBooksReviews

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders | SPOILER-FREE

Posted on by J.W. Martin

LINCOLN IN THE BARDO
by George Saunders

Random House
February 14, 2017

From Goodreads:

February 1862. The Civil War is less than one year old. The fighting has begun in earnest, and the nation has begun to realize it is in for a long, bloody struggle. Meanwhile, President Lincoln’s beloved eleven-year-old son, Willie, lies upstairs in the White House, gravely ill. In a matter of days, despite predictions of a recovery, Willie dies and is laid to rest in a Georgetown cemetery. “My poor boy, he was too good for this earth,” the president says at the time. “God has called him home.” Newspapers report that a grief-stricken Lincoln returned to the crypt several times alone to hold his boy’s body.

Before I get into any praise or criticisms, I think it’s only fair to say that I did this one as an audiobook. Sometimes that doesn’t make a lot of difference, and sometimes it’s a big, huge, GIGANTIC difference. As was the case with this one.

Lincoln in the Bardo had a FULL cast. Even if a character only had a single line, they brought in an actor to read that line. And a lot of really well-known actors, too. Nick Offerman, Lena Dunham, Ben Stiller, Julianne Moor, Susan Sarandon, Bill Vader, Megan Mullally, Rainn Wilson, Kat Dennings, Jeffery Tambor, Don Cheadle, and the list goes on and on. It’s a really big deal.

All that being said, this book started out as a tough listen.

There were many “chapters” that consisted of quotes from many other literary sources. And though each quote was read by a voice actor, the narrator had to read the source for each one. And most of the quotes were short. So you’d have a single sentence (maybe two), followed by the narrator reading the source. Sentence, source, sentence, source, rinse and repeat. I don’t think I need to tell you how that affected the book’s flow.

To be fair, there was a really interesting aspect to these chapters, and it lay in-between the quotes themselves. When getting into a chunk of them, there would be a clear theme. Some were about an event that all the quoted parties had attended, while others were as simple as someone’s appearance. The range that came out from these quotes left my unsure of anything. One person claimed a party to be lively and wonderful while another described it as abysmal and a waste of money. Even in regards to something like the colour of Lincoln’s eyes, there were quotes that placed just about every possible colour and hue around his irises. I would have thought there was a clear answer on details like that. History suggests otherwise.

The other fascinating part was our main characters.

Going into this book, I knew it was a historical fiction surrounding Abraham Lincoln around the time of the death of his son Willie. That was about it.

I thought our main characters were going to be members of the Lincoln family, our the servants closest to them, and maybe even old Honest Abe himself. However, our main characters are a bunch of dead people, existing in a community partially reminiscent to The Graveyard Book.

The back and forth between these characters is what makes up most of the book. President Lincoln is there for most of it, but he’s kind of in the background. He may be the subject, but not the content. And at first I was disappointed by that, but it really works. Each of these new characters that are somewhat thrust upon you at first (in a scene so chaotic that you wonder which way is up) but by the end they’re old friends and you hate to leave them. 

This book checks a lot of boxes across readers’ interests. History, death, the supernatural, and satire, just to name a few. It’s not quite a book that I feel like EVERYONE should read, but most people. And while the audiobook is certainly an accomplishment in many ways, I think if I even read this book again (and I feel like I will) I think I’ll opt to read it in print.

Fun fact about this post: Happy Family Day, Canada! And Happy President’s Day, America!
AllMemesTop 5 Tuesday

Top 5 Ravenclaw Books

Posted on by J.W. Martin

I’M A RAVENCLAW! That being said, you might think that putting together the list for this week’s Top 5 Tuesday would be easy, but you would be WRONG! If anything it was more difficult. I had to recommend books for people like me, and I like a lot of random things. How do you recommend books that will cover the wide gamut of what Luna or Cho might be feeling on any given day?

Ah, well. Wit beyond measure is man’s greatest treasure. Here we go!

Ready Player One

You have to know I was going to put this one under my own person house, right? No explanation needed. It’s awesome. Ravenclaws are awesome. Match made in heaven Hogwarts.

Illuminae

Illuminae Files

Wait. Am I just picking Sci-Fi titles for Ravenclaw? Let’s be honest, though. All houses are going to love The Illumae Files because they’re (mostly) human.

The Name of the Wind

It’s got magic, but it takes a real scientific angle with it. I think Ravenclaw’s would appreciate that. It’s more than just hand-waving while some sparkles. There’s reason and logic to everything.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

This is a historical fiction that takes place during the golden age of comic books. Creation of Superman and all that. Really fascinating stuff for a comic book nerd like me. And if there are any comic nerds at Hogwarts, they’re most likely wearing blue. Or maybe yellow…

The Martian

Mark Watney seems to have everything a Ravenclaw would look for. Smartest man on an entire planet, yet continually pulls off miracles that only seem possible with a little magic.

Fun fact about this post: I technically haven’t finished The Martian, but I’m almost there!