Book review: [sic] by Scott Kelly

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Description:
Six teens are devoted to a game with one rule: If a player gets tagged, they must change their life within the next fifteen minutes. The better the player, the bigger the change. One might give their car away, or punch the school bully. Another might change identities or sacrifice their virginity. Anything to keep evolving, to avoid fitting into a label or caring about the junk they own. But their quest for enlightenment has taken a rotten final turn - one of the players has murdered the game's creator, the teen prophet (cult leader?) David Bloom.

Our narrator is being framed for the crime; can he clear his name and discover which of his lifelong friends is the murderer before he takes the fall?

[sic] is a gritty teen murder mystery that delves into the psychology of enlightenment among the criminally dysfunctional. It is a winner of WEBook's Page2Fame award and a cult classic among its thousands of teen fans on Wattpad, some of whom have actually applied Kelly's fictional game to their own lives.

Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)

Farewell, Fortune Cookies

Yesterday, I unpublished With Five You Get Fortune Cookies*, a collection of short stories that I released early on in my career. Never read it or even heard of it? Don't worry, you're not the only one. It was my worst seller. In the three years since its release, the number of people who bought the book can be counted on two hands.

If you're reading this post, and you're now wondering what With Five You Get Fortune Cookies contained, don't worry. I've posted the first story from the collection, "Fortune Cookies", to Wattpad. In the coming weeks, I'll add the other stories in the collection.

* Yes, the title is a play on the 1968 film, With Six You Get Eggroll. There were five stories in my collection, and the first one was titled "Fortune Cookies." Get it?

The freedom of not having fans

Happy Independence Day to those of you in the U.S. or those who celebrate the holiday abroad! For everyone else, happy July 4, 2015, which should be celebrated because it's a weekend!

The holiday kind of snuck up on me because if I had planned things out beforehand, I would've come up with a blog post that ties into Independence Day. So now I'm left scrambling for a topic that's somewhat related. Fortunately (for me, not necessarily for you), I was already planning to blog about freedom in writing. The kind of freedom that many other authors don't have but I do. I'm talking about the freedom to write what you want to because you have very few or no fans.

Specifically, the freedoms that I currently enjoy include:

1. The freedom to publish on my schedule. I try to write as often as I can. I'm pretty good about it on the weekends, but during the week, there are often days when I'm so exhausted from the day job and family commitments that my brain can't come up with any good words. Instead of stressing myself out, I choose not to write on those days. It does mean that it takes me months to finish a novel, but no one is clamoring for the next book. Having no fans means having no one to disappoint when your next novel won't come out until 2016.
2. The freedom to write in the genre of my choice. So far, my stories have primarily fallen in the category of young adult speculative fiction. It happens to be my favorite genre to read, but I also enjoy thrillers, and I've been considering writing one soon. Some authors may feel restricted because their name is tied to one genre, and they don't want to confuse their fans by releasing books in another genre. (I've heard this more in the context of traditional publishers than indie authors.) When you have no fans, no one cares which genre you write in. Publishing books across genres may, in fact, be beneficial because you never know where you'll eventually find success. Maybe it'll be my thriller that takes off.
3. The freedom not to write the next book in a series. My novels so far have all been standalone. I like writing them because I haven't had any brilliant ideas for a series. Fortunately, with no fans, there's no one asking me when book 2 is coming out. I can continue to write standalone novels or switch to writing a series if the inspiration strikes me. Or, if I'm in the middle of a series, I can choose to put it aside to work on something else because no one is waiting for the next book.

By no means am I suggesting that it's bad to have fans. However, if you're an unknown author like me, take heart in knowing that it's not all doom and gloom. As the saying goes, when life gives you lemons, use it on your BBQ chicken this 4th of July.

Book review: Love Songs by Jamie Campbell

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Description:
Sixteen year old Kaley Thorne is invisible. Or she may as well be anyway. All her emotions, thoughts, and dramas go into her secret songbook. Music is her passion, her escape, and her hidden talent. Her songbook is her diary, singing everything she is too shy to speak.

When the most popular guy in school actually sees her and invites her on a date, the experiences she has to write about skyrocket. First love, first kiss, and first heartbreak, everything is funnelled into her songs.

For this songwriter, life is nothing but fodder for her music. As she rides the rollercoaster of her teens, the shy and invisible girl must find her inner diva. Only when she can find her voice, can she finally speak.

Rating: 5 stars (out of 5)

Execution over idea (or, I thought it would get easier by now)

There's a notion in the tech startup world that execution is more important than ideas. I happen to agree with that because anyone can have an idea, but what separates the successful companies from the unsuccessful ones often lie in their ability to execute on the idea. Can the engineers build the product in a timely manner? Can the salespeople sell the product? Can the operations group fulfill delivery of the product once customers buy it?

The same notion holds true with writing. Story ideas are a dime a dozen. I have a notebook of story ideas to prove it. I'm sure you have lots of great ideas too, as do many people who've never written a book. But obviously, not every idea turns into a book, or most of the people in the world would be authors.

Image source: http://bit.ly/1jK8Wjg

This point was driven home to me lately because, for the past few months, I've been working on the first draft of my sixth novel. You'd think that by now, writing a novel would have gotten easier for me. Not so! This might have been the most difficult first draft that I've ever written. The story idea seemed awesome when I first set out to write it (and I still like the premise very much), but the idea introduced a restriction that I wasn't aware of in the beginning. I won't reveal what that restriction is because it would spoil the story, but it's caused me a ton of headaches during the course of writing the manuscript.

I'm confident that I'll eventually whip this story into shape, but the experience just reminds me that a great idea does not equal a great book without the execution and hard work to back it up. Stories don't write themselves, no matter how many novels you've already written!

When the show is better than the book - Game of Thrones

In January, I wrote a post with some examples of when a book isn't better than the movie. At the time, I couldn't think of any cases where I disliked the book but really liked the screen adaptation. There is one now.

I know I'm late to watching Games of Thrones. Part of the reason I haven't seen the show before now is that I don't watch much TV and I don't get HBO, so the chances of my catching anything on that channel is virtually nonexistent. Even when episodes became available on Netflix, I resisted the urge to watch it despite all of the good reviews I heard because I didn't like the books. I thought the first book in the series, A Game of Thrones, was average at best. Then I read the second book, A Clash of Kings, and it took me a long time to painfully wade through it. I couldn't understand why so many readers loved the series, so it made me wary of the TV show as well.

It turns out that I needn't have worried. The screen adaptation of George R.R. Martin's series is vastly more enjoyable than his books. Something about the books made me view the story as a one-dimensional never-ending soap opera, but once I saw the world of Westeros on the screen, it came alive for me. Characters who I didn't care for in the book were suddenly more interesting. Plot lines that were confusing or boring became intriguing.

I'm still only on season 1 of the TV series, but I'm enjoying it so much that I plan to continue. As for the books, there's a chance that I'll go back and re-read the series from the beginning now that I have a more favorable picture in my mind. Maybe this time, I'll make it past book two.

Book review: Lake Ephemeral by Anya Allyn

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Description:
Six children without memories of their early years can never leave the valley that gave them life.

Seven manors surround Lake Ephemeral, and their residents are hiding terrifying secrets. Seraphin Ferón was first brought to the valley of Lake Ephemeral as an eleven-year-old orphan, to meet a mother she'd never known she had. But before Seraphin arrives, her mother falls ill with a mysterious illness and is kept locked away in the attic.

After Seraphin arrives, she discovers that the vast estate is plagued by an exotic, massive species of carnivorous plant—named the Coffin Flower, capable of consuming humans.

No one can answer Seraphin the riddle of why the residents stay at Lake Ephemeral year after year or why no one ever leaves. She decides, at all costs, to find her way into the attic and finally meet her mother. In the events that follow, Seraphin will be propelled into a horrifying new existence.

Teen science fiction for all ages. A group of scientists, a hidden valley, mystery, carnivorous plants, genetic experiments and thrilling adventure. Contains love and romance scenes that might not be suitable for ages under 14.

Rating: 5 stars (out of 5)