Best un-review ever!

Author Candy Korman posted this article on Candy’s Monsters, and used Vokhtah as one of her examples. I am so chuffed I just had to copy/paste the whole article.

A Sense of Time & Place
Posted on May 16, 2013

When I read, I really enjoy a clear sense of time and place. This goes for all genres. If your ghost story is set in a lonely mansion on the coast of Maine during WWII — make sure I believe the setting is truthful and I’ll believe that the ghost is real, too.

I’ve recently read fiction by two new authors — new friends from blogging, Twitter & LinkedIn — and I’m pleased to report that these two entirely different writers have both produced settings that were vivid and so real that the characters actions ring true.

As I don’t review books on this blog and don’t want to start. I’m not going to do full out reviews of “Such is Life” and “Vokhtah.” I will simply use both of these new books as examples of the best use of distinctive settings.

In her science fiction book “Vokhtah” A. C. Flory invites the reader to a hostile planet “peopled” with creatures best described as winged sociopaths with Machiavellian motivations, a fully-realized cultural mythology, a hierarchic society and an unusual manner for procreation. Vokhtah is a brutal planet and survival of the fittest (shrewdest, most devious & cunning) code underpins all the characters interactions.

The sense of place is so clear and finely drawn that the actions of the characters flow as a consequence of where they are in geography and the rigid caste system of the planet. A less complete environment might have made the creatures a bit comical or, worse, two dimensional. A.C. Flory’s achievement is in creating a credible, incredible world.

Jeri Walker-Bickett didn’t have to create her lonely landscape — she found it in various locations here in the United States. Her hyper-realistic short story collection “Such is Life” is set in a range of places — a suffocating small town in Montana, New Orleans, a suburban community determined to protect their children from outside influences, etc. It’s America today.

In each story, the sense of time and place anchors the story. The story “Leaving Big Sky” begins in a laundromat. The protagonist is watching laundry tumble in a dryer because, unlike the laundromats in Butte, this one has no TV, magazines and coffee to keep people entertained. The sense of abject loneliness is so much a part of the environment that the author doesn’t have to tell the reader what John is feeling. We feel it with him. The squeaky clean town in the story entitled “Not Terribly Important” hides a cruel streak of bigotry beneath its family friendly veneer. For a moment I wanted to shake the protagonist’s shoulders and tell her that the writing was on the wall.

By inviting the reader into specific and coherent environments, both of these authors give their characters real places to come to life.

For those who may not have read Candy’s own writing, she creates thoroughly modern stories inspired by classic ‘monster’ fiction such as Bram Stoker’s Dracula. And when Candy talks about ‘time and place’ it’s because she herself is a master at making the incredible feel utterly real. 

Cheers from Meeka doing her happy dance.

From Queen to Kaati

It’s miserable outside so what better way to get the blood pumping than with We Will Rock You, by Queen.

And now, to prove that I have actually been doing something other than just cruising the youtube channels, here is a short scene featuring Kaati.  There is a very short fight scene at the end, and I’m really proud of it. I checked it out with a real martial arts expert [T.D. McKinnon] and it was given the green light! [I just knew my obsession with Bruce Lee would come in handy one day].

***

Kaati was crouching with its head down a waste pit, pinging to see if the hole led anywhere, when disaster struck.

“Ho! What doing there?”

The young Trader froze, its thoughts racing. As it straightened up, the small personal pouch hanging from its neck swung against its chest.

“Dropping credit,” it said as it turned to face its interrogator.

The drudge’s eyes travelled to the small pouch hanging from Kaati’s neck and stayed there.

“How losing credit when pouch still being tied?”

Kaati’s hand reached defensively for the pouch before it realised how pointless the gesture was. Throwing back its shoulders, it glared at the drudge.

“Calling a liar?”

“Ki,” the drudge replied, its gaze shifting to the ground by the young Trader’s feet. “Calling thief.”

Kaati did not need to follow the direction of the drudge’s gaze to know what lay by its feet. It was the broom, the broom it had stolen from the stores. It had meant to return the broom to its hiding place at true-dark, but had been in a hurry, and had wanted to check one last waste pit before returning to its own hiding place for the night. It had thought it was safe because all the drudges were at their evening meal. All but one, apparently.

“Hearing gossip about someone attacking guard to steal broom,” the drudge went on, “but not believing, until now.”

When Kaati still did not say anything, the drudge rolled its shoulders, and dropped into an aggressive crouch.

“Thinking healers paying well for capture of such a thief.”

Kaati had never been the best fighter amongst the apprentice Tellers, and had never fought a real fight to the death. Nevertheless, it had fought, and won, enough mating battles during the gathers to know the iVokh opposite could never win, not against a Teller.

The eyrie-bound was tall, and well built, but most of its bulk was fat, not muscle. And the way it crouched in one spot spoke of over-confidence. It would charge like a to’pak, relying on bulk and momentum to deliver a knock-out blow.

As the drudge lowered its head and bunched its powerful leg muscles, Kaati subtly shifted its weight to the right foot, and clasped its hands together at chest height, as if hoping to protect its face.

The drudge leapt with a roar of triumph.

Moving with studied grace, Kaati spun on its right leg.

The drudge barreled through the empty space where the young Trader should have been.

As the iVokh passed, Kaati brought its clasped hands down on the back of the drudge’s neck, just below the spot where the neck met the skull.

There was a sharp crack, and the drudge collapsed. It slid across the ground for a wingspan before coming to a halt just fingers from the lip of the pit. It was not dead, but its neck was broken. One terrified eye stared up at Kaati as the young Trader picked up a rock and put it out of its misery.

***

I appreciate this scene is a bit out of context, but I hope you enjoy it anyway.

cheers

Meeks

This is addictive! Yes, more music…

Okay Anneb54, I blame you for this. If you had not posted that Gordon Lightfoot video and made me sing along, I would not have remembered Roberta Flack, and this song :

And then I couldn’t stop, could I? Especially when I stumbled on this little number. Aussies of a certain vintage should remember this one. It’s a fun song so give it a try.

And finally, something a little different, but still a classic. <<evil laughter>>

Where will it end?

-hugs-

Meeks

I’ve just had a ‘duh’ moment.

You know how sometimes your left hand doesn’t seem to know what your right hand is doing? And then something happens, and you go ‘Duh, I have two hands, why don’t I use them?’

Well, I’ve just had one of those moment, and it has to do with marketing.

I discovered I had two hands when I read this post by Catherine Caffeinated, and realised that social media is just word of mouth on a grand scale.

Now that simple concept may be obvious to you, but I it wasn’t obvious to me. I saw word of mouth as the only real way of achieving success, yes, but I dismissed social media as nothing but advertising.

Not all social media, of course. I love my blog, so it doesn’t count as advertising, but Twitter? Facebook? Goodreads? The truth is I don’t love those media.  Why should I waste valuable writing time on something that is just <<cue evil music>> advertising? Especially when it doesn’t seem to work anyway…

I doubt my ‘duh’ moment will increase my presence on either Twitter or Facebook, however it will increase the time I spend on Goodreads. Why? Because I love talking about books with people who share my passions. The only thing that has kept me away from Goodreads in the past has been my dislike of the user interface. It really is horribly clunky.

So there you have it – my personal moment of revelation. If you’ve been like me, and avoiding social media like an STD, please read this eye-opening article.

Happy Monday!

Meeks

A challenge – music from my favourite decade.

Colin from Colinology challenged me to come up with a post about the music of my favourite decade. Well, for me that would have to be the 70′s.  I’ll give my reasons at the end,  but for now, sit back, relax and enjoy some golden oldies in no particular order [coz I'm lazy].

1978 : Gerry Rafferty – Baker Street. I love the sax on this track, and the musician-ship, and the story in the lyrics.

1973 : Pink Floyd – Money. Lots of synthesizer but also some gorgeous live instruments. In fact, most of the track is instrumental, highlighting the musician-ship of the band. See a pattern emerging?

1971 : Led Zepplin – Stairway to Heaven. No visuals on this clip but just listen to the intro. Melody, lyrics, muscian-ship. This song has it all.

1978 : The Doobie Brothers – What a Fool Believes. The Doobies didn’t write the song but they sure made it famous. I lived through a breakup listening to this song.

1971 : The Doors – Riders on the Storm. I can’t say I loved everything the Doors wrote but I did love this particular song for the same reasons I’ve given for all the others. Very jazzy with an emphasis on musician-ship. They were bad boys but they knew how to play… instruments.

1971 :  Yes – I’ve Seen All Good People. I came to Yes late and used to have great debates with my ex about which was the better band – Supertramp or Yes. I thought it was Supertramp but I can’t include a list of  the 70′s without at least this one song.

1974 : Supertramp – School. Crime of the Century is such a fantastic album it’s hard to pick just one track so, as I’ve already featured other tracks from the album,  I thought I’d include School this time. Same amazing musicianship I’ve gushed about before, but also a bit more rock. Love, love, love.

1972 : Deep Purple – Space Truckin’.  No way I could create this list without Deep Purple. Another favourite track from their Machine Head album.

1970 : Bobby Bloom – Montego Bay. Never heard of Bobby Bloom? Don’t worry just enjoy this nice, boppy little song that makes you feel good.

1979 : The Knack – My Sharona. Okay before you kill me, this is just a fun song that I remember with a lot of affection, and I thought it would be a nice low-brow end to the 70′s!

I grew up with classical music and didn’t discover pop/rock until my late teens. So while I love heavy metal and hard, driving rock, I tend to gravitate towards modern music that has its roots in classical. Most of the tracks I love the most feature great musicians who wanted to break out and do something new with their skills. And they did.

The 70′s was the decade when this kind of music was at its height, before production began to take over from musician-ship, and image superseded talent. There was some brilliant music in the 80′s as well – e.g. Eurythmics – but the times they were a-changin’.

Now I won’t name names, but I know some of you are really into music as well – in particular classic Aussie rock – so if you feel inspired, why not take up the challenge and let the world  know which was your favourite decade!

cheers

Meeks

Vokhtah book 2 – another short snippet

I’ve had a great day writing, and just finished this little scene. I think you’ll know what it’s about. Enjoy.

***

The guard at the entrance to the Settlement was just an ordinary iVokh who happened to be quite a bit larger than average. Easy going, and just a little lazy, it usually allowed the hunters and foragers to return to the Settlement without too much scrutiny. If they were carrying food they were allowed in.

On this day however, the guard was feeling as nervous as the refugees who had arrived the day before. It had made the mistake of allowing them in without first advising the healers. That small deviation from protocol had earned it a severe reprimand, and a supervisor for a ti’m’akh.

The Messenger standing beside the guard, and watching its every move was only young, but it took its assignment very seriously, and had made sure the guard checked every iVokh who went in or out.

When an iVokh flew up to the flight ledge, almost an hour earlier than normal, both the guard and the Messenger narrowed their eyes in suspicion. Their suspicions were not eased when the iVokh landed badly, clearly favouring its right leg.

As the iVokh limped towards them, the guard stepped out of the shadows of the entrance and held its hand up.

“Identifying self!”

“Being Hunter,” the iVokh said in a hoarse voice as it untied the flap of its pouch and pulled out a rock lizard.

“Why returning so early?” the Messenger asked, as it too stepped out of the shadows.

The Hunter seemed taken aback when it saw the starrock chain hanging from the Messenger’s neck, but recovered quickly. It fumbled a lopside bow as it said, “Forgiveness Healer, not seeing.”

The Messenger flapped its hand impatiently.

“Being Messenger. Answering question!”

“Of course, Messenger. Begging forgiveness!” the iVokh said. “Being in hurry when retrieving rock lizard, and foot being caught in crevice. Returning early to seek healing…”

“Pah!” the Messenger said, its tone officious. “Healers having more important work than fixing twisted ankles. Soaking foot in cold water and being more careful next time.”

“Hearing and obeying,” the iVokh said, its voice just a tiny bit sulky. “Can passing now?”

The guard glanced at the Messenger for confirmation before waving the Hunter through. It watched the Hunter from the corner of its eye as the young iVokh limped slowly inside.

When the guard faced to the front again, its expression was carefully neutral, but a more experienced Messenger would have noticed that it appeared a lot more relaxed than it had been.

Of course a more experienced Messenger would also have noticed that the injured Hunter was now favouring its left leg.

Being wrong about food.

I have not written much about GMOs [genetically modified organisms] because… because I did not want to come across as some conspiracy theorist who has an axe to grind against ‘Frankenfoods’.

The truth is, I do not believe genetic engineering is inherently ‘wrong’ or ‘evil’. Like any branch of science, genetic research has the potential to save lives. But…

But the sneaky introduction of genetically modified organisms into our food chain was not the solution to some dire ‘need’. There is nothing wrong with the food we currently have. So why ‘fix’ it? The answer is to make money.

Again, making money is not inherently ‘wrong’ or ‘evil’. But… when the imperative to make money results in :

1. Buying legislators to ensure GM food does NOT have to go through the same rigorous, and expensive testing as drugs, and

2. Denies consumers both knowledge and choice

then that is morally wrong, and an abuse of the technology.

But don’t take my word for it. Please follow the link below to a post with truly shocking facts and figures.

Being wrong about food..

Once you have read this post you can make up your own minds about whether this situation is dangerous or not.

Meeks

Now I see the power of Twitter!

I wanted to see if anyone in Twitterland was concerned about GMOs or the attempt to have heirloom seeds outlawed.

#seeds and #EU came up with nothing interesting but #Monsanto hit the jackpot. I followed a link to this :

http://youtu.be/SSKGnM4Bs_s

I have no idea yet who or what Anonymous is but if they have a fan club I’m in. Going to sleep well tonight knowing the groundswell of opinion against Monsanto and its ilk is growing.

Night night,

Meeks

Vokhtah, book 2 – some plotting

I’m a pantster not a plotter, however there comes a time in any story when I have to take a step back, and really think about the wider ramifications of the story I am trying to tell.  This usually involves thinking about the world as a whole. 

What outside forces are at work? And how will they impinge on the lives of my main characters? In particular, how will history, culture and politics help or hinder their personal stories?

The following excerpt is something I’ve been working on for days.  The scene will impact two of my main  characters. One, the Apprentice/Kaati you already know. The other is a character I introduced in book 1, but only in passing. As such, the information in this scene is vital, so it needs to be clear. But I did not want to write just an info dump.

I’d really appreciate your feedback on whether I got the balance more or less right.

***

The Master of Acolytes was something of an anomaly amongst the higher ranked healers of the Guild because it had a powerful talent, but very little personal ambition. It did not attempt to curry favour with either the Yellows or the Blues, and tended to avoid Guild politics where possible.

Nonetheless, even this mild, self-effacing healer nurtured one, powerful ambition – it longed to be the healer who finally freed the Guild from the Traders forever.

The Master did not hate the Traders. It did not even object to sharing the Settlement with them, but it did fear another Great Unrest, and knew the Guild would never be truly safe while it was dependant on outsiders for any of its important needs. And Traders held a monopoly on two of the Guild’s most critical needs.

Ever since the time of the Rogue, the Traders had been the Guild’s only link with the outside world. Traders kept the Guild’s maps up-to-date, and the Trader Quartermaster made it possible for the Guild to know where and when its Triads were needed. In return the Guild offered the Traders shelter and food.

This symbiotic relationship had worked well until the Great Unrest had disrupted the Guild’s ability to service the needs of the eyries, and their Vokh. The Guild had acted quickly, yet even so, the Nine had promised to withdraw the Vokh’s protection of the Settlement if such a disturbance ever happened again.

That was when it had become obvious the Guild’s dependence on the Traders was a weakness, a dangerous weakness. Nonetheless, despite over two hundred years of trying, the Guild had not been able to breed even one healer-seneschal. The two talents could not seem to co-exist in the one body. Those Initiates with healing talents strong enough to survive the Quickening could not mind-speak, while those who could always died because they lacked the healing talents that should have kept them alive.

The Master of Acolytes was well aware of this long, long history of failure. It had personally nurtured six young candidates with the ability to mind-speak, and had watched five of them die during the Quickening. Yet despite these failures, it continued to believe the mix of talents was possible. It was convinced the answer lay in finding candidates who had the potential for both talents… before the Quickening.

All five failures had been first rate apprentices who should have made good healers, yet they had still died. And now there was just one hopeful left. It possessed a very strong talent for mind-speaking, however it was the young iVokh’s empathy that made it truly special. Even as a first year apprentice, it had shown a natural ‘knack’ for soothing fractious newborn that was unmatched by any of the other apprentices.

Of course, empathy alone did not guarantee the Quickening would trigger the full range of healer talents. Nonetheless, experience had shown that natural empathy was the best indicator of latent talents.

In an effort to release more of this latent potential, the Master had arranged for the sixth candidate to work with a powerful healer in a safe eyrie. Unfortunately Needlepoint had turned out to be anything but safe, and now no-one seemed to know whether the Triad, and its precious Acolyte, were still alive.

The only one who might know was the Yellow Councillor, but it was the least approachable, and most feared healer in the Guild.

The Master had never spoken to the Yellow, nor had it ever wanted to, but after almost two ti’m’akh of fearful waiting it could wait no longer. It had to find out if its life’s work was over.

Taking a deep, tremulous breath, the old healer raised its hand and knocked on the Yellow’s door.

Has the EU gone completely mad???? Update : Video added.

This video clip explains the importance of seeds, and seed diversity far better than I can.

This is huge, and truly HORRIBLE.

I’ve just learned the EU is trying to pass a new law that would outlaw the selling or trading of heirloom varieties of seeds. If passed, this law would benefit only the multinational seed companies – like Monsanto – while endangering biodiversity and the safety of future food production.

If this is a sign of things to come, we are all at risk, not just the countries of Europe.

http://www.realseeds.co.uk/seedlaw.html

Why does any of this matter? The answer is complicated but I’ll try and boil it down to a few key issues.

1. Farmers are currently growing crops based on a few hybrid seed varieties.

2. These hybrid seeds are owned by a few, ginormous, multinational seed companies who own the patents, and have a virtual monopoly on food production.

3.  But the multinationals CANNOT own or patent heirloom seeds.

4. There are hundreds, if not thousands of heirloom seeds for each grain or vegetable variety. This means biodiversity. It also means that if anything terrible happens to the commercially grown seeds, we would have these heirloom varieties to fall back on.

5. At the moment, heirloom seeds are kept alive by small farmers around the world, AND BY GARDENERS. We are like a huge, distributed seed bank. We, and the heirloom seeds we keep alive are the backup if anything goes wrong in the mono-culture world of big agriculture.

6. If the EU passes this new law, small farmers, seed-saver organizations and backyard gardeners will no longer be able to buy, or even give away heirloom seeds to friends or neighbours. It will be illegal. And so in a short time these precious seeds would die out.

7. If the multinationals get their way in the EU, they will target some other country next. Perhaps Australia. In time they will make this a global reality. No more heirloom seeds anywhere. No more backup in case of disaster. No more biodiversity. We will literally have all our eggs in one basket and that basket will be owned by the multinationals.

I know some of you will think ‘So what? I don’t buy or eat those old vegies anyway. Why should I care?’

My answer is to look at the potato famine that hit Ireland 200 hundred years ago. At the time, most of the poorest people lived on next to nothing but potatoes. When a potato blight ruined the crops, the poorest people starved.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_(Ireland)

Now imagine if something similar hit our wheat crops. They are mono-cultures too. Millions and millions of acres of the same crop grown the world over. What would a pandemic amongst our most important food crops do to the Western World? Would McDonalds start serving hamburgers without the bun?

We all believe that things like the potato famine could never happen again because our technology would fix the problem quick smart. Unfortunately this is a comforting fairytale. There are pests and crop diseases still in existence that have been around since agriculture was first invented. Our technology keeps these things in check, but that is all.

Think about it. If technology could fix everything then why are we still using so many pesticides and herbicides?

The truth is that sometimes the only way to ‘fix’ a problem is to start from scratch, using old, primitive seeds that have a natural resistance to the pest or disease. If all those old, unpatentable seeds die out, where are we going to turn in a crisis?

This new law being put forward by the EU may not affect you, or me, or our kids, but sooner or later it will affect humanity as a whole. Something will come along, and it will smash all those big, shiny eggs in our basket. And then an awful lot of people will starve.

This is not science fiction. I wish it were. This is the real world, and we have to stop it from happening. Please do what you can to safeguard our future.

Meeks