Broken Eye by Brent
Weeks is the third book of The Lightbringer series. This novel follows the
exciting events detailed in Burning Knife, the second book in the series. The
four main narrators are Gavin, the current Prism who has lost his powers, Kip,
Gavin’s son, and a Blackguard trainee, Teia, Kip’s friend and a Blackguard
trainee (and Kip’s slave, but that is another story), and Karris White Oak,
Gavin’s wife (she is also a former Blackguard and The White’s assistant. The
White is the leader of the spy corps of the Chromeria). These four characters
have important tasks to carry out in the war against the Color Prince and a
shadowy group of assassins named the Order of the Broken Eye. If they fail in
their missions, then the colors will become unbalanced and they risk the
destruction of their world.
Summary Background
Chromaturgy is the magical system of the Seven Satrapies. They call
magicians who use Chromaturgy drafters and the best drafters live on the Chromeria,
the seat of the Satrapies government. Drafters can take a part of the spectrum
of light and make a substance called luxin. They can shape luxin into items,
with the color of the luxin determining the properties of the item. Most
drafters can draft one or two colors while the Prism can draft all the colors. There
is only one Prism alive at one time and the Prism is the military, spiritual,
and political leader of the Satrapies.
Summary Plot
Gavin is the Prism, but he had lost his powers. He is a galley slave
under Captain Gunner and Gavin searches for a way to escape. Kip is a
Blackguard trainee but is being coerced and groomed by his grandfather Andross
to do Andross’s bidding as the potential next Prism. Kip is conflicted with his
feelings for Andross. He is also conflicted with his feelings for Teia, who is
his friend, comrade, and a reluctant slave who he would like to become romantically
involved. This plot becomes more complicated when Tisis is interested in
getting to know Kip physically and Kip finds he is also interested in her.
Events get beyond Kip’s control and he must try to escape the Chromeria before someone
assassinates him. Teia is tasked by the White to infiltrate the secret Order of
the Broken Eye. It is a dangerous mission complicated by her interaction with
the assassin named Murder Sharp. Kariss White Oak assists the White by gaining
intelligence about the Color Prince’s rebellion.
Meanwhile, the Color Prince has been marshaling his land forces
beginning an invasion of the Blood Forest which is one step from the Chromeria.
The main characters must become involved in defeating him before he becomes too
strong.
Recommendation
The story of the Lightbringer series gets more complicated and interesting in this novel. This novel is a part of the larger series. The author resolves plot points from book 2 and the author introduce others to be explored in the next book. The four main characters are well drawn. The author pushes their arcs in this novel to a climactic confrontation at the Chromeria. There were other viewpoint chapters in the novel, but I believe those chapters were unnecessary though they were well written. It would take more space to develop more than the four main characters. The next novel in the series is named the Blood Mirror and I will read it this year. The last novel in the series is named the Burning White and is scheduled to be published on October 22, 2019.
Links
This is the link to the
Goodreads page of Broken Eye by Brent Weeks.
I bought and used the editing program Pro Writing Aid
to edit the novel, Assassin in New Marl City. I edited and typed Assassin Chapters
30, 32, and 33 in August 2018. I reviewed Chapters 34, 35, and 36 in September
and I completed the review in February. Chapters 1 to 14 were reviewed by using
Pro Writing Aid and submitted to my novel writing class.
The first draft of Assassin in New Marl City was
complete at 99,981 words in July 2018. I completed draft two in December 2018
at 89,072 words. Third draft edits have not been started.
I submitted a story called Through Time and Space with
Ferdinand Feghoot – GG to the Introductory
Writing Workshop at Parma, Ohio library.
I submitted the second draft edit of Chapter 14 of
Assassin to the Advanced Writing Workshop at Parma, Ohio library.
The stories 4 Humours,
Space Station Sunyata, Grognard, Get to the Point, and LARP Film Noir have been
submitted to magazines.
Statistics of magazine submissions for 2019 are; 1
different story submitted a total of 1 time with 0 accepted, 1 pending, and 0
rejections.
Events
from March 2019
I attended the SF con, ConCoction in Cleveland Ohio March 1 to 3, 2019.
I plan to write four blog posts for garydavidgillen.com
including my Writing Progress Report for April 2019.
I plan to work
on second draft edits for Chapters 15 to 30 of Assassin in New Marl City using
Pro Writing Aid.
I plan to work
on third draft edits for Chapters 1 to 14 of Assassin in New Marl City using
comments from the Advanced Writing Workshop at Parma, Ohio.
Polish and submit the stories Sleeping Sickness, Space-Dog
Confession, White Bracer, Mage Squad, I Shall Not Return, Prisoner of Tarnal, and Kay-Eye for submission to short
fiction magazines.
Submit 4 Humours,
Space Station Sunyata, Grognard, and LARP Film Noir to other short fiction
magazines.
Edit Searcher of Riven.
Hire an editor for Searcher of Riven from Fiveer.
Edit Ruins of Yarnud.
Hire an editor for Ruins of Yarnud from Fiveer.
Put the novel, Assassin in New Marl City, into the
writing program, Scrivener.
Buy e-book covers for Searcher of Riven and Ruins of
Yarnud from Fiveer.
Buy an e-book cover for Assassin in New Marl City from
Fiveer.
Planned
Events for April 2019
I plan to attend the Western Reserve
Writers Conference on April 27, 2019, at the Cuyahoga County Public Library at South
Euclid, Ohio
I attended the SF conference Cleveland ConCoction 2018 at 600 North Aurora Road Aurora, Ohio at the Bertram Inn and Conference Center from March 9, 2018, to March 11, 2018. The 2019 convention was from March 1 to 3, 2019 and I realized when I wrote a recap for that conference, I had not posted a recap for the 2018 conference. This is a recap of the 2018 conference. I attended the opening ceremony, five panels, two author showcases, a performance, and the closing ceremony. I also volunteered in the ConSuite for eight hours.
Picture of my
badge from Cleveland ConCoction 2018
Summary
Friday, March
9th at 5 PM
Opening Ceremonies
Mogchelle,
the mistress of ceremonies, started the event. She introduced the Con Co-chairs
Laura and Stan. Sean Owen Roberts was the Media Guest of Honor and Seanan
McGuire was the Author Guest of Honor. The Harp Twins were the Music Guest of
Honor. Knightmage was the Cosplay Guest
of Honor and Stitches was the Fan Cosplay Guest of Honor. The event was a
chance to meet the Guests of Honor before they took part in the weekend events.
They held the
ceremonies in the McKinley A Room.
Friday,
March 9th at 6 PM
Author Showcase
(Session 1)
Five authors read
from their works. They were all different and interesting.
J. Thorn read a
scene from his novel Barren. It was about the protagonist on a sailboat near
Kelly’s Island in a post-apocalyptic
world.
Vik Walker read
from the novel The Crystal Dragon of Nital. It’s a humorous middle-grade book about the adventures of Nathan and Zozz,
his cat-like being friend.
They held the
panel in the Presidential Boardroom with 6 attendees.
Friday,
March 9th at 7 PM
Villains, More
Than Just Black Hats, a panel with Addie King, Barbara Doran, Brent Seth, J. D.
Blackrose, and Cindy Matthews.
The panel sat at
the end of the table farthest from the
window and the attendees sat at the other end of the table. Examples of good villains
are Darth Vader (not in the prequel
movies), Voldemort (from Harry Potter), and Cersai (from Game of Thrones).
They held the
panel in the Presidential Boardroom with 14 attendees.
Saturday,
March 10th from 9 AM to 5 PM
I volunteered in the
ConSuite Department for eight hours on Saturday. The ConSuite in 2018 at The
Bertram differed from 2017 when the con was at the Sheraton at the Airport. The
ConSuite was in a back bar at the
Sheraton. The new area, the Garfield ballroom, is a nicer and light-filled windowed open space.
Saturday,
March 10th at 7 PM
Elevator Pitch and
Publishing Expectations Tutorial, a panel with Adrian Matthews, Addie King,
Weston Kincade, Mary Turzillo, and Geoffrey Landis.
An Elevator Pitch explains
the essence of a novel. The idea is to give
the pitch to someone who could be interested in representing your book in the time it would take an elevator to go six
floors. Suggestions were to not use character names in a pitch and to get the
pitch down to one sentence. I presented my pitch for my novel in process,
Assassin in New Marl City. The panel understood my pitch, but Geoffrey Landis suggested
that I not use the phrase telepathic detective, since deception would not fool
a telepath. It was a good suggestion. I revised it to a mind-reading detective since
a mind reader is more constricted than a
telepath.
They held the
panel in the McKinley B Room with 9 attendees.
Saturday,
March 10th at 8 PM
The Performance of
the Letter of the Travails of Victor Frankenstein (While at University)
This was a
performance staged by the Confused Greenies from the Player’s Patchwork Theater
Company. The story was a humorous tale of a young Victor Frankenstein working on a special extra credit project at
University (the monster).
They held the
performance in the McKinley A Room with 20 attendees.
Saturday,
March 10th at 9 PM
Flash Fiction, a
panel with Addie King, Marie Vibbert, Megan Engelhardt, Olivia Berrier, Weston Kincade, and Josef Matulich
The best way to
find a potential market for flash fiction
is the submission grinder. Some markets
are Apex, Daily Science Fiction, Everyday
Fiction, and 101 Fiction. Flash fiction is short, has a high concept, and has
an implied ending. They suggested reading the story aloud to see if it worked.
Examples of one
line flash fiction follow. “Baby shoes
for sale, never worn.” “I put a ring on her finger and pulled the pin.” “The
last man on earth sits in a room and hears a knock.”
They held the
panel in the McKinley B Room with 11 attendees.
Sunday,
March 11th at 10 AM
Publishing in the
21st Century, a panel with Addie King, Linda Robertson, Daniel
Willis, and Weston Kincade.
Addie King was the
moderator of the panel and handed out a printed power point presentation on the
topic. The two paths to publishing are novels and short stories. Traditional,
small press, vanity, or self-publishing can publish novels. For novel
publication, get an agent to represent you by following submission guidelines
and submitting a query letter with a synopsis. She handed out examples of her
query letter and synopsis. For short stories, find markets and submit stories
with a cover letter. Resources for finding markets are Ralan.com, Duotrope.com,
and Locus magazine at locusmag.com. Understand what rights you are giving in
any contract you sign. Don’t quit your day job. Write to have a career, not a
one hit wonder.
They held the
panel in the McKinley B Room with 6 attendees.
Sunday,
March 11th at 12 PM
Author Showcase
(Session 6)
Four authors read
from their works.
Mackenzie Flohr
read from her novel Rite of Abnegation, the soon
to be published book #2 in the Rite of Wands series.
They held the
panel in the Presidential Boardroom with
8 attendees.
Sunday,
March 11th at 1 PM
Marketing, an
Author’s Best Friend, a panel with Weston Kincade, Marcus Calvert, Olivia
Berrier, Sara Dobie Bauer, and Troy Maynard.
The panelists gave
advice about marketing yourself and your work. Create an author platform for an
online presence, make yourself an LLC, use Amazon Marketing, Facebook snippets,
Instagram, and Bookbub. Consider using a professional web design for your
website and use a professional
photographer for your author picture. Buy bookmarks, business cards, and items
to give away free at conventions related to yourself and your works.
They held the
panel in the Presidential Boardroom with
5 attendees.
Sunday,
March 11th at 2 PM
Closing Ceremonies
The Guests of
Honor were presented and thanked.
They held the
panel in the McKinley A Room with 25 attendees.
Recommendation –
Conclusion
I had a great time
at Cleveland ConCoction 2018. The location was different. It was better for me
and the parking was free. I worked eight
hours straight in the ConSuite and I don’t plan on doing that again because I
missed events I wanted to see and it was too exhausting to work in one block of
time. My star of the con was Addie King. I attended four panels where she was a
panelist and I liked her handouts for publishing. My other highlights were the
performance by the Confused Greenies and Geoffrey Landis’s comments on my
elevator pitch. I attended Cleveland
ConCoction in 2019 and I bought my pass for 2020.
Links
The most recent SF conference I attended was Cleveland ConCoction 2019 at 600 North Aurora Road Aurora, Ohio at the Bertram Inn and Conference Center from March 1 to 3, 2019. I attended the opening ceremony, four panels, and the closing ceremony. I also volunteered in the Programming Department for four hours and in the ConSuite for four hours. This is a link to my conference recap.
Self-Publishing Boot Camp Guide for Authors, 4th
Edition: Your roadmap to creating, publishing, promoting, and selling your
books is written by Carla King. It is a
comprehensive guide for authors interested in self-publishing their
work. The book strives to be up to date with current information. This is the
fourth edition and Carla King updates the consumer’s guide section periodically
through her website, so to use this book to its fullest effect, authors should
seek out and use the updates to the consumer’s
guide by subscribing to her reader’s list.
Summary
Self-Publishing Boot Camp is divided into seven sections which cover her advice on all aspects of becoming a self-publisher because self-publishing is a business and authors must understand what they want to achieve by self-publishing. There are certain tasks to self-publishing that can be completed by hiring the work out based on the project’s budget and the author’s ability to complete certain tasks.
These are the seven sections in the book.
Prepare for success
by using beta readers (she uses Word to write the book and BetaBooks to
distribute to beta readers), beta publishing (she uses LeanPub), self-edit
your work (she uses ProWriting Aid, MasterWriter, and Fictionary), and
hiring a professional editor.
Create a publishing
business by developing a business plan,
creating your publishing imprint, and buying at least ten ISBN for all your book formats.
Good book design is
important to make your book look as close as possible to the mainstream
publishers. Book Design involves the interior design and most critically
the book cover. It is important to hire out this task to a professional. Create
the book with a PDF for printing and an e-book.
Distribute your book using Amazon KDP for Amazon ebooks (MOBI book
format), Smashwords for all other ebooks (EPUB book format), Amazon Kindle
Print for Amazon POD (Print on demand with PDF book format), and IngramSpark
for all other POD (PDF book format).
Selling your book
direct by your website and through other means. (She uses WordPress and GoDaddy.com for her websites. She uses
Gumroad for direct orders.)
Book marketing and
promotion through your website and social media.
This section is the consumer’s guide for self-publishers where the available
vendors are reviewed, and recommendations are made. This section is
updated and if you subscribe to her reader’s list, then Carla King will email
you the updates in a separate web book. This is the link to the
subscription page. https://selfpubbootcamp.com/readers/
Recommendation
This book has all the knowledge you need to decide if self-publishing is the right way to release your book. It seems like a daunting task, but Carla King takes each necessary step of the process and explains what to do clearly and simply. The consumer’s guide gives options for help in producing a self-published book. Let Carla guide you on your journey of self-publishing. That’s my plan and I will update this post to show my progress.
Links
This is the link to the Goodreads page of Self-Publishing
Boot Camp by Carla King.
I attended the SF
conference called Cleveland ConCoction at 600 North Aurora Road Aurora, Ohio at
the Bertram Inn and Conference Center from March 1 to 3, 2019. I attended the
opening ceremony, four panels, and the closing ceremony. I also volunteered in the Programming Department for four hours
and in the ConSuite for four hours.
Writing a Story in
Three Parts, a panel with Addie J. King:
She handed out a
copy of a PowerPoint presentation with 27 slides titled Telling a Story in
Three Parts. The three parts of a story are the beginning, the middle, and the end. She plans the first third of her novel and
has a roadmap for the rest of the novel so she can improvise the ending since the story could end up at a different spot than the original idea. First, she
suggests creating a concept which is the coolest thing about the story written
in one sentence. Then figure out the conflict and develop three-part story
arcs. There should be multiple story arcs in a novel. Write one sentence for the
start, middle, and resolution for each arc. She went over examples from her fiction
and in other fiction. She suggested resources for writing.
They held the panel
in the Pegasus Room with 12 attendees.
Friday,
March 1 at 4 PM
Outlining Your
Novel, a panel with Malcolm Wood.
The panelist found
out he was throwing way too much of his work because he had too many false
starts, so he tried something different. Outlining your novel gives the author
a roadmap to keep you going where you want to go. He took a 3-ring binder for
each of his novels and put his research and notes into it. A novel starts with
an idea and he made a sheet for the idea. Main character sheets come next. The
idea and the characters lead to a situation. You build scenes on index cards
and you refine the plot. In the beginning,
you state the problem, in the middle are the plot complications, and at the end, you fulfill the promises created at the
beginning. You can create a plot outline. He handed out an example for his novel
named Trash. Each scene has a POV character,
an event or action description, a location or a setting, a date for when the
events occurred, and the chapter where the scene occurs. Now you can write the novel
from the beginning to the end without false starts and dead ends. He also showed
us one of his completed notebooks. His method gives a more structured way of
creating a novel than the method described by Addie J. King in the earlier panel.
They held the panel
in the McKinley B Room with 6 attendees.
Friday,
March 1 at 5 PM
The Opening Ceremonies
The
Con Co-chair, Laura, opened the ceremonies. She introduced the media guest of
honor Jim O’Rear, next was the EmCee from asklovecraft.com, Leeman Kessler, and
then the artist guest of honor, Stephen Hickman. The cosplay guests of honor were
Knightmage and Nerd Girl. The gaming guests of honor from Rogue Cthulhu were
last introduced. Con co-chair Stan finished the program by turning his smiley
face tee-shirt to a frown with a permanent marker to fit the theme of the con ‘It
came from the dark side of the…’ more closely. It was nice to see the guests up
close and personal to start off the Con.
They held the
ceremonies in the McKinley B Room with 40 attendees.
Saturday,
March 2 at 4 PM
Mars Needs Love, a
panel with substitute panelist Geoffrey Landis.
Geoffrey
Landis is a scientist who works for NASA Glenn on projects such as scientific probes
going to Mars including the photovoltaic cells used by the probes. He is also an
award-winning hard science fiction writer. He started the panel talking about the
current situation in Mars probes. The Opportunity rover’s last contact was on
June 10, 2018, before a dust storm and NASA declared the mission complete on
February 13, 2019. The Curiosity rover and the Insight lander are still
operational. The European-Russian rover named Rosalind Franklin is scheduled to
launch in 2020 and the American rover named Mars 2020 is also scheduled to
launch in 2020. NASA’s plan is to send a manned mission to Mars in the 2030s,
but no money is associated with that directive. A Dutch commercial venture named
Mars One formed in 2011 planned to send a one-way manned mission to Mars and set
up a colony but went bankrupt on January 10, 2019. The mission was flawed. The talk
went on to other space-related topics. In the long term, it’s critical to
develop a practical economic model for space. One route is to mine platinum
from asteroids. He talked about examples of Mars in books and movies. This was a great impromptu
talk that covered a lot of interesting topics.
They held the
panel in the Pegasus Room with 10 attendees.
Saturday,
March 2 from 5 PM to 9 PM
I volunteered in
the Programming Department for four hours on Saturday.
When there were
ten minutes remaining in the program, I went to each of the programs. I held up
a sign to show to the panelists there were
ten minutes left to go in the program. I also counted the number of panelists and
attendees at each panel. They stationed me in the green room, a room where the
panelists could go to relax, to help them as needed. I worked with Lisa and her
two kids. It was fun, and I learned something new.
Saturday,
March 2 at 9 PM
Time Travel in your
Writing: It’s About Time, a panel with Cindy Matthews, J.L. Gribble, Geoffrey
Landis, and Carma Haley Shoemaker.
The
panelists started the panel by naming their favorite examples of time travel in
books, TV, or movies. They were Legends of Tomorrow airing on the CW network,
Supernatural also airing on the CW network, The novel The Time Machine by H. G.
Wells, The novel Time after Time by Karl Alexander (and the show airing on ABC),
and the short story All You Zombies by Robert A. Heinlein. Things to think
about when designing a time travel story are the opportunity to change time and
the Butterfly effect where a small change in initial conditions leads to a
significant result.
Geoffrey
Landis stated four reasons that time travel stories are intriguing.
The setting because the
past is exotic.
Adventure
The nature of paradox
Playing the what if game.
Time
travel stories work well for sending a contemporary person to the past or
future to compare it to today. The best and most used time travel mechanism today
is the wormhole because it can act as a portal to anywhere.
The
articles on the site cover time travel found in TV, books, film, audio, and
comics. It is a great website that covers this topic well.
They held the
panel in the McKinley B Room with 10 attendees.
Sunday,
March 3 from 10 AM to 2 PM
I volunteered in the
ConSuite Department for four hours on Sunday.
My
responsibilities were to set out food and clean up the ConSuite. They put a deli
tray out before I arrived and we put the trays away throughout the day. We put out chips and pop as needed, but our
main function seemed to keep making coffee. There was always a new pot brewing.
The ConSuite closed down at 2 PM, so I helped break down the shelves and put items
out for the hotel to store away. I worked with Badger and Chris. This was the
third year I volunteered in the ConSuite and I have enjoyed helping every year.
I plan to help again next year.
Sunday,
March 3 from 2 PM
The Closing Ceremonies
The
co-chair Laura and Stann announced the theme and date for next year’s con. Next
year’s theme is MeeplePunk, all things to do with cyberpunk (SF subgenre
focused on a mix of lowlife and high tech) and meeples (gaming pieces shaped like
people and animals used in Euro-style board games). They will hold ConCoction 2019
at the Bertram Inn from March 6 to 8, 2020. The audience applauded the guests
of honor Jim O’Rear, Knightmage, and Nerd Girl. They made a volunteer shoutout.
The Con was closed until next year.
They held the
ceremonies in the McKinley B Room with 38 attendees
Recommendation
– Conclusion
I had a great experience
at ConCoction 2019. The Bertram Conference center is nice. The only problem I
encountered was that half of the activities are in another building. It was cold
this time of the year traveling between the buildings. The Bertram is much
better than the Conference’s earlier location
at the Sheraton Hotel at the Airport. My star of the con was Geoffrey Landis.
He substituted at the last minute to give
a solo panel on Mars and was engaging in the Time Travel panel I attended. My
other highlights were the writing talks that Addie J. King and Malcolm Wood gave. I’m planning on attending next
year.
Links
A recent SF
conference I attended was ConFusion in Detroit, Michigan from January 18 to 20,
2019. The theme of the con was Storming the ConFusion, so they designated the
areas with names related to the movie, The Princess Bride. I had a great drive
to Detroit just before the snowstorm struck. My star of the con was John
Scalzi. He gave an excellent reading and was engaging in the panel I attended.
My other highlights were Ada Palmer’s interview and watching The Princess Bride
at the con. I’ll be back next year.
This is my writing progress report for March 2019.
I attended the play Sherwood at the Allen Theater in
Cleveland on February 9, 2019. We went to dinner at the Hofbrauhaus after the
play. Both were enjoyable.
Writing
Progress from February 2019
I wrote five blog posts for garydavidgillen.com including
my writing report for February 2019 linked below.
I bought and used the editing program Pro Writing Aid
to edit the novel, Assassin in New Marl City. I edited and typed Assassin Chapters
30, 32, and 33 in August 2018. I reviewed Chapters 34, 35, and 36 in September
and I completed the review in February. Chapters 1 to 13 were reviewed by using
Pro Writing Aid and submitted to my novel writing class.
The first draft of Assassin in New Marl City was
complete at 99,981 words in July 2018. I completed draft two in December 2018
at 89,072 words. Third draft edits have not been started.
I submitted a story called Popular Mechanics Rebrewed to
the Introductory Writing Workshop at
Parma, Ohio library.
I submitted the second draft edit of Chapter 13 of
Assassin to the Advanced Writing Workshop at Parma, Ohio library.
The stories 4 Humours,
Space Station Sunyata, Grognard, Get to the Point, and LARP Film Noir have been
submitted to magazines.
Statistics of magazine submissions for 2019 are; 0
different stories submitted a total of 0 times with 0 accepted, 0 pending, and
0 rejections.
Events
from February 2019
I planned to attend the SF
conference CapriCon in Wheeling, Illinois
from February 14 to 17, 2019, but I was unable to this year. Next year I will
attend for sure.
Writing
Goals for March 2019
I plan to write four blog posts for garydavidgillen.com
including my writing report for March 2019.
I plan to work
on second draft edits for Chapters 14 to 30 of Assassin in New Marl City using
Pro Writing Aid.
I plan to work
on third draft edits for Chapters 1 to 13 of Assassin in New Marl City using
comments from the Advanced Writing Workshop at Parma, Ohio.
Polish and submit the stories Sleeping Sickness, Space-Dog
Confession, White Bracer, Mage Squad, I Shall Not Return, Prisoner of Tarnal, and Kay-Eye for submission to short
fiction magazines.
Submit 4 Humours,
Space Station Sunyata, Grognard, and LARP Film Noir to other short fiction
magazines.
Edit Searcher of Riven.
Hire an editor for Searcher of Riven from Fiveer.
Edit Ruins of Yarnud.
Hire an editor for Ruins of Yarnud from Fiveer.
Put the novel, Assassin in New Marl City, into the
writing program, Scrivener.
Buy e-book covers for Searcher of Riven and Ruins of
Yarnud from Fiveer.
Buy an e-book cover for Assassin in New Marl City from
Fiveer.
Planned
Events for March 2019
I attended the SF con, ConCoction in Cleveland Ohio March 1 to 3, 2019.
Camino Island by John Grisham is a thriller about the
theft of rare manuscripts from the Princeton University Library. Frustrated
writer Mercer Mann is recruited by the FBI rare asset recovery unit to get
inside the inner circle of rare book dealer Bruce Cable, the FBI’s suspect for
buying the stolen original handwritten manuscripts of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s
five novels. Mercer must go to Bruce’s bookstore, Bay Books, on Camino Island in
Florida. If she can convince Bruce to show her the manuscripts, will she turn
him into the FBI or will she let him go?
Summary
The first three chapters of Camino Island follow the
viewpoints of the three main characters in succession. The first chapter, The
Heist, follows Denny Durban a disgraced Army Ranger as he and his crew steal
the manuscripts from the Princeton Library. Chapter Two, The Dealer, is the
backstory about how Bruce came into money, opened his bookstore, and becomes a
dealer in rare writings. Mercer is introduced in Chapter Three, The Recruit,
when she had just lost her job as an adjunct professor at the University of
North Carolina. She had written a well-received novel years ago and a book of
short stories. She had been unsuccessfully trying to write her next novel as
she taught. Elaine of the FBI rare asset recovery unit has an offer for Mercer.
Return to her childhood summer retreat of Camino Island to learn what she can about
Bruce and the FBI will pay her well including eliminating her student loan
debt. She had spent her summers there with her Aunt Tessa until her Aunt died.
Mercer is reluctant to go, but she accepts the offer for the money. She engages
with the writer’s community on Camino Island and is soon introduced to Bruce.
He is a notorious ladies man, who is married to Noelle but is rumored to bed
young female writers as they come for book tours at his store. Mercer is a
likely target for Bruce and that is why Elaine recruited her. The story
continues following Mercer, Bruce, and Denny until the conclusion.
Recommendation
I liked this book, but something was missing. It had to do with my expectations for the novel and the characters. I can’t decide who the protagonist is and the genre of this novel falls. The three main characters are Denny, the antagonist, Mercer, maybe the protagonist, and Bruce, who is somewhere in between. The categories on Amazon put this novel under thrillers and suspense with subcategories of Heist, Crime, and Conspiracy. It could have been a thriller, but Denny never threatens or even meets Mercer or Bruce. The secondary plot involves the writing community on Camino Island. It could have been a literary novel where Mercer found her muse to write by interacting with the community, but that’s not how the novel turned out. So, it’s a non-thriller thriller or a non-literary literary novel. The setup and characterization are well done, and that makes the unfulfilled ending disappointing.
Links
This is the link to the Goodreads page of Camino
Island by John Grisham.
Origin by
Dan Brown is his fifth book featuring Harvard professor of symbology and
religious iconology Robert Langdon. Edmond Kirsch is a former student of
Langdon. Kirsch is a billionaire computer tech genius who has a controversial presentation
to make. When his presentation is interrupted, it falls to Langdon to solve the
riddle to unlock Kirsch’s research. Langdon’s life is threatened by unknown assailants desperate to keep Kirsch’s
research from the public. Can Langdon solve the riddle before Kirsch’s research
is lost forever?
Summary
Edmond Kirsch has discovered something about the origin of
man that will challenge the world’s religions. He tells his findings to a religious
leader from Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. They are shaken by the news.
Kirsch plans to announce his findings at a large event watched worldwide at the
Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. Langdon is one person Kirsch invites to the
event. Ambra Vidal is the museum director who planned the event with Kirsch.
She is also the finance of Prince Julian, the heir to the Spanish throne.
Edmond talks to Langdon before the event in private. He poses two questions about
the human race to Langdon. How did it all begin? Where are we going? Kirsch starts
his presentation but something goes wrong. Langdon and Vidal must flee the
museum and solve a riddle to unlock Kirsch’s presentation so everyone can see
what he planned to say. Their only ally is Winston, the artificial intelligence
that Kirsch had invented. They must avoid the Guardia Real (the Spanish Royal Guard),
the Spanish police, and members of the Palmarian Church on their journey from Bilbao
to Barcelona. The finale takes Langdon and Vidal from Gaudi’s Casa Mila to
Sagrada Familia to the Barcelona Supercomputing Center and a final resolution.
Recommendation
I liked this book, and it fits well with the other novels in the series. The plot moves quickly, and the premise is intriguing. I was worried the solution would not be as shocking as it was portrayed to be in the novel. Without providing spoilers, I would say Kirsch’s conclusions do not pose the threat to religion he proposes. Where do we come from? There is still room for a creator. Where are we going? The answer has been used in science fiction novels for decades. I think it is good that mystery readers will be exposed to science fictional topics in this novel, so like that idea. The formula of the book is like a travelogue, send Langdon to a location and set one scene in each famous landmark that is there. It’s easy, but it works.
Links
Origin by Dan Brown is Book #5 of the Robert Langdon
Series
This is a link to my book review of The Atlantis Gene by A. G. Riddle, Book 1 of the Origin Series. This novel is about the origin of man. It is a technothriller like Origin, but it takes a different path than Origin does by having an extraterrestrial solution. It is a quick read with an interesting premise.
The
Dispatcher by John Scalzi is about Tony Valdez who is a legal professional
murderer. In the future, people who are murdered
come back to life in the place where they find most comforting. People who commit suicide and have natural deaths stay dead.
Murder victims return to life naked but alive. So, murderers can keep people
from dying an eternal death. Someone has kidnapped one of Tony’s colleagues,
another Dispatcher and Tony must rescue him, or his colleague may be killed and
stay dead. Will Tony continue to search for him even though Tony may face his
own eternal death?
Summary
The story starts with Tony at the hospital on an assignment
covering for his friend Jimmy Albert. Insurance companies demand Dispatchers
are present at risky surgeries so if the operation goes wrong the Dispatcher
can murder the patient so the patient can live again. This will protect the
hospital and the insurance company from wrongful death lawsuits. It is a judgment
call for the Dispatcher on whether to do the task. After he completes his
assignment, Chicago detective Nona Langdon interviews Tony about Jimmy. Jimmy
is missing and Nona thinks Tony can help her find him. Tony knows the right
people to ask about what assignments Jimmy was working on. Jimmy was taking
less than legal jobs and they wondered if that was why he was kidnapped. Tony
uses his contacts without Nona knowledge and it gets him into trouble. Nona and
Tony follow their leads to find out what happened to Jimmy.
Recommendation
The Dispatcher is a 130-page novella and is a tight, intriguing story. The mechanism of how murder victims are returned to life is an interesting idea and the ramifications are explored in this story. It’s a future police procedural with a surprising moral. If you don’t pay attention to your loved one’s wishes, you will suffer at your own peril. I want to read the next novella, The Dispatcher 2 when published and learn more about Tony and the role of Dispatchers in this world.
Links
The Dispatcher by John Scalzi is Book #1 of the
Dispatcher Series
This is the link to The Dispatcher’s Goodreads page.
John Scalzi read the first chapter in his work in
progress, the Dispatcher 2, at the science fiction conference ConFusion in Detroit
on January 19, 2019. This is a link to my recap of the conference and John
Scalzi’s reading
This is a link to my book review of The Consuming Fire
by John Scalzi, Book 1 of the Interdependency Sequence. It is the next most
recent book I have read by John Scalzi.
This is my writing progress report for February 2019.
A sign to the Miracle Max film room at ConFusion in
Detroit, where I watched the movie, The Princess Bride. The theme of ConFusion
was Storming the ConFusion which alludes to the movie.
Writing
Progress from January 2019
I wrote 4 blog posts for garydavidgillen.com including
my writing report for January 2019 linked below.
I bought and used the editing program Pro Writing Aid
to edit the novel, Assassin in New Marl City. I edited and typed Assassin Chapters
30, 32, and 33 in August 2018. I reviewed Chapters 34, 35, and 36 in September
and plan to finish the review in February. Chapters 1 to 12 were reviewed by
using Pro Writing Aid and submitted to my novel writing class.
The first draft of Assassin in New Marl City was
complete at 99,981 words in July 2018. I completed draft two in December 2018
at 89,072 words. Third draft edits continue.
I submitted a story called Popular Mechanics Rebrewed for
my writing class.
I also submitted a revised and shorter version of
Space Station Sunyata to a different writing class. I plan to submit this
version to magazines.
The stories 4 Humours,
Space Station Sunyata, Grognard, Get to the Point, and LARP Film Noir have been
submitted to magazines.
Statistics of magazine submissions for 2019 are; 0
different stories submitted a total of 0 times with 0 accepted, 0 pending, and
0 rejections.
Events
from January 2019
I attended ConFusion in Dearborn, Michigan from January 17 to 20, 2019.
ConFusion is sponsored by the Ann Arbor Science Fiction Association.
I plan to write 4 blog posts for garydavidgillen.com
including my writing report for February 2019.
Type the edits for Assassin in New Marl City Chapters 34,
35, and 36 in February 2019.
Edit Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12
of Assassin in New Marl City using comments from the Advanced Writing Workshop
at Parma, Ohio.
Polish and submit the stories Sleeping Sickness, Space-Dog
Confession, White Bracer, Mage Squad, I Shall Not Return, Prisoner of Tarnal, and Kay-Eye for submission to short
fiction magazines.
Submit 4 Humours,
Space Station Sunyata, Grognard, and LARP Film Noir to other short fiction
magazines.
Edit Searcher of Riven.
Hire an editor for Searcher of Riven from Fiveer.
Edit Ruins of Yarnud.
Hire an editor for Ruins of Yarnud from Fiveer.
Put the novel, Assassin in New Marl City, into the
writing program, Scrivener.
Buy e-book covers for Searcher of Riven and Ruins of
Yarnud from Fiveer.
Buy an e-book cover for Assassin in New Marl City from
Fiveer.
