Fiction Friday: What Makes Great Fiction?

Stamp from Caat at DeviantArt

What makes great fiction?

The answer's probably different for each of you.

I know some people are incredibly character driven.  They want a character that arcs and grows; who morphs from something imperfect to something well, slightly better.  I think of books like Living Dead Girl and The Adoration of Jenna Fox as being character-driven stories.  There's not a whole lot that happens plot-wise, but the character development is what draws you in.

Along the same lines, some readers are all about voice.  If you can't relate to the character's voice, you can't relate to the story, plain and simple.  For example, if your character is a total beotch, snot, uber-dork, or some other over-the-top cliche, the book's probably dead on arrival.

Stephanie Meyer caught a lot of crap because her writing wasn't "beautiful" or technically perfect, but the woman can tell a story.  Flowery prose does nothing for me.  And while I do notice passages that are beautifully written (such as in Firelight), as long as the writing isn't crappy, I'm happy.

Then there's plot.  And if you can't tell by now, I'm a plot girl.  I need a relatable main character and decent writing, but the story line has got to get my blood flowing.  If I don't need to turn the page to find out what happens next, I'm not as immersed in the fictional world as I want to be.  And truly, it's only at that point that fiction becomes better than Prozac.  Because reading through a book that you know should be good, but frankly you just wish it was over (Linger) is the antithesis of therapeutic.

What is it for you?  What's the thing that will reel you in every time?

13 to Life by Shannon Delaney - A Review

13 to Life by Shannon Delaney came out in May (St. Martin's Press) and I heard a lot of tweets about it on Twitter.  Now, I'm normally not a werewolf fan, but I am hugely susceptible to peer pressure, so I decided to pick up a copy.  I'm glad I broke out of my mold.

Here's the blurb:
When junior Jess Gillmansen gets called out of class by Guidance, she can only presume it’s for one of two reasons. Either they’ve finally figured out who wrote the scathing anti-jock editorial in the school newspaper or they’re hosting yet another intervention for her about her mom. Although far from expecting it, she’s relieved to discover Guidance just wants her to show a new student around—but he comes with issues of his own including a police escort.
The newest member of Junction High, Pietr Rusakova has secrets to hide--secrets that will bring big trouble to the small town of Junction—secrets including dramatic changes he’s undergoing that will surely end his life early. 
Sounds intriguing, right?  Cover's not hard on the eyes either...

So right off the bat, I like the book because the MC is named Jessie. 'Nuf said.

The book pulled me in because there are all these little trails, but information is only fed to you in small snippets.  You know from the blurb that "something" happened to Jessie's mom.  But what?  As the details come out slowly, her life looks more and more like an imminent train wreck.

Then you throw Pietr into the picture - Pietr, who Jessie has convinced to date her best friend, Sarah, but whom Jessie ends up kissing (a lot) behind closed doors.  Yeah - that could be a problem.  And there's the fact that he somehow skipped school all last year to prowl around Russia while the Russian mafia is committing random crimes in a neighboring town.  Also sounds like it could be a problem.

I also liked that you got to meet Jessie and Pietr's families and they all seemed to have distinct personalities.  Jessie's dad was there enough to be believable but not enough to keep her out of trouble.  And that's a fine line you walk as an author too -- so I can appreciate that artistry there.

Finally, there was enough realistic tension in the pages that I stayed up too late reading on more than 1 night.  And I love my sleep, so that tells you something.

BUT -- and here's my main complaint -- I didn't feel like this was a stand alone novel.  Now, I know Delaney wrote it to be a series.  I get that.  But there are far too many loose ends for this book to make it on its own.  And I feel like that's a cardinal sin somehow.  Like even though you've left me hanging and wanting to read the next book, I should still feel like this one is complete.  And I don't feel that way about this one...

Someone else also mentioned that the Russian mafia and wolves in a neighboring town plot lines felt underdeveloped, and I'd have to agree with that as well.  Of course, it leaves Delaney lots of room in her series to work, but I felt like I had no idea why Jessie was following these stories when her own tragic story was still so close.  If it was a distraction, I would've liked a better picture of that.

But it's easy to be a Monday morning quarterback right?  It's a lot harder to actually write a book that catches my attention so completely.

Overall, I give 13 to Life 3.5 out of 4 Greek coins - a better than URA* rating (just not quite OMG!)  And I'll be awaiting the sequel, Secrets and Shadows, coming out in February.

Elizabeth Kolodziej Blog Tour Stop

Today, we're lucky to welcome Elizabeth Kolodziej as her blog tour makes a stop at The Daily Harrell.  Elizabeth's debut novel, Vampyre Kisses, came out in May.

Here's a description of Vampyre Kisses, which I'm sure you'll want to get:

Vampyre Kisses is an enthralling story about a young woman named Faith, who was content with her life, but deep down craved more excitement. Then a mysterious man named Trent enters her life and everything changes. Surprising to Faith, Trent is a green-eyed vampire from Ireland. She is even more surprised to find out that she is a witch, and the last of her kind.

Faith finds out that she is destined to restore her witch line and becomes more powerful as she gains confidence and knowledge, but danger lurks everywhere. Especially when unknown assailants steal the most important gems from the vampire master and werewolf royalty..

Now surrounded by a world full of mystifying vampires and werewolves, can Faith gain enough power to help her friends and rescue the stolen gems?

I’m fascinated that you were able to weave lore from witches, vampires and werewolves together.  Where did your inspiration come from?

My inspiration comes from everything around me. A lot coming from books I read, especially those on folklore which is one way I do my research. When I read old folklore it gives me ideas of what I might want to include in my own book with my own twist.

Also, the people around me, my friends, movies, music they all inspire ideas in my mind.

We know you spent a TON of time researching for this novel.  How much do you think that helped your writing?

I think it is what made my writing so unique. Without doing the research I would not have been able to come up with the ideas that I did. It really does help to inspire my writing and make it unique.

We read on an earlier stop in your blog tour that Greek mythology with a twist plays a big role in Vampyre Kisses.  I’m hooked.  Please tell us more about that – what myth(s) you used and how you twisted them.

I have always been interested in Greek Mythology. I have been reading those stories for ages. I guess I got to understand the gods and by doing so I was able to make my own kind of mythological story about how vampires were first created and why. I also wanted to make sure I included the gods and goddess in my story so they are actual characters and play a role in what happens.

Right now I am taking an old Greek/Roman myth from the first werewolf story and mixing it into the second book to explain their history and how they came to be.

When it comes to witches I have studied a lot of books on magic and decided to incorporate some spells and empowering spells to help Faith come more to life in the book.

I applaud you for being brave enough to self-publish your novel.  How did you make that decision?

I spent a couple years trying to get an agent. But I don’t think my query letter was that great though I worked on it and got people to help me with it. I tried revamping it a dozen times but it never got people really interested.

Finally I said that’s enough and decided to see what I could do on my own. Plus with the economy being the way it is not many agents were taking authors on unless they were sure it was a sure thing. Finally my dad said lets try it this way and the adventurous part of me took over and I said ok lets do it and see what happens.

Are there any tips you’d offer for novelists like yourself who are considering the self-publishing route?

My advice would be to let them know that it is VERY difficult. You are going to have to do everything yourself and make mistakes along the way. I am just hoping I can get on enough blogs and get enough people interested in at least picking it up and giving it a good read.

Where to buy the book:

Publisher’s Website: http://bit.ly/9aYtXo

Barns and Noble: http://bit.ly/dpJsLC

Amazon: http://amzn.to/byci6O

Kindle: http://amzn.to/bMzSKN

Website: www.vampyrekisses.com

Facebook.com/kweenkitten

Twitter.com/ejkolodziej

Giveaway Contest: http://www.vampyrekisses.com/?page_id=511 

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRR08B3xed8

Thank you, Elizabeth.  We wish you loads of luck with this book and your upcoming werewolf-heavy sequel.  All - I recommend checking out the trailer - it's really good!

Flashback Friday: ME - only younger

I'm feeling a little dry tonight for Flashback Friday.  My most recent inspiration was a trip to Disney with the family, but any flashbacks I get from that go back to pre-middle school years; definitely not YA.  I didn't do Grad Night (mistake?) because I had no interest in paying $100 to schlep around Disney in a dress and less-than-comfortable shoes. *yes, me dork*

Image snatched from DeviantArt

So, looking back, I've created a list of some of my 10 most memorable high school moments:
1.  Meeting my life-long best friend as a new freshman on the practice field for marching band.
2.  Quitting band in 10th grade after trying to switch from flute to oboe and ending up sucking at both.
3.  Riding a bus all night long to get from south Florida to Wake Forest University for the Early Bird speech and debate competition - and the coach only allowing us to eat at Cracker Barrel. Crazy but so much fun!
4.  Getting invited to prom as a freshman.
5.  Learning my dad had a heart attack the night before my sophomore prom, finding out the hard way I'm allergic to escargot at prom dinner, and having to visit my dad in the hospital the next day.*
6.  Giving up my acting elective because (a) I couldn't sing and (b) my grandmother told me I'd never be pretty enough to be an actress.
7.  Riding in the homecoming parade and getting my 15 minutes of fame, even though I wasn't part of the "official" court.
8.  Struggling with my own self worth as a poor kid amongst a bunch of rich kids.
9.  Figuring out that I was smarter than I'd given myself credit for; I just had to want it.
10. Falling head over in heels in love and staying there for a long time.

What are some of your most memorable moments?

* this is probably one of my worst memories ever.  speaking of which, you should hope over to the Oasis and leave your worst HS memory in the comments for a chance to win a copy of the critically acclaimed The Local News.

Middle Books (and why they sometimes annoy me)

Last week I reviewed Linger - the second in The Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy.  Several months ago I reviewed Captivate - the sequel to Need.  And late last week I finished reading The Broken Lake, second in The Pace series.  All of these seconds followed first books that I loved.  LOVED!!  And all of these sequels let me down.

But I don't think it was because my expectations were too high.  You saw me rave about The Soul Screamers series, and not a one of those books suffered from "middle book syndrome" - I think I just made that term up.  (Ok, quick google search reveals I am not the first to recognize this problem.)

Which got me thinking, what really is my problem with these books?  Why did I keep flipping the pages waiting for something to freaking happen already?

The answer: Because nothing happens in them until the very end.  I loved Need, and Shiver, and The Pace because in each of them, you have this fierce, forbidden, impossible love and insurmountable odds.  Then you top it all off with a crisis.  But in book two, the author gives us all the gushy lovey-dovey stuff we hoped for for the characters in book one, but it just doesn't make for very interesting reading.  When everyone's happy, it's kind of boring actually.  Now, in all of them, you the reader are waiting for the hammer to drop, which is a little suspenseful, but not enough.  At least not enough for me.

So that realization made me think some more: as an author, how can I be sure I don't write a book that suffers from middle book syndrome (if, praise Jesus, I ever have a first book)? IMO, there are two ways to do this, but only one way to do it well - anymore.

The first way is to have the romance fall apart as soon as it gets started.  That's what made New Moon so damn agonizing, right?  (I confess, I almost burst into tears in the grocery store when I took a break from this book to pick up some food. How could Edward do that to Bella??) But I now exclude this as a way to inject action into middle books because everyone will say it's an obvious Twilight comparison.  Don't do that to yourself.

Which brings us to method two: actually write some action.  I know, it's a shocking idea.  That Boy and Girl have overcome impossible odds to be together and now something else crappy happens.  But it's going to happen in book 3, right?  Crappy is coming.  Crappy is what makes us turn the page to see how the problem gets resolved. Don't write a whole freakin' book of perpetual love scenes.  It's like book two is nothing but an overly-long (and largely unnecessary) bridge to book three.  Great - your characters are happy and in love and they're singing from the rooftops.  I'm snoring.

Well, this turned out to be more of a rant than I perhaps intended.  And of course, I'm certainly not the guru of publishing (seeing as how I've yet to catch the view from the published side of the industry).  But come on, there's got to be someone else who feels this way, right?

Oh, and any other tips I missed for overcoming the dreaded MBS (it's a syndrome now, so it should get a medical-like abbreviation)?