Today's entry is an early turkey day surprise--my blog is being invaded by Gloria Weber, author of Gaslight Demons. Don't worry, though, this is a planned invasion, so my blog is only temporarily capitulating to the awesomeness that is Gloria. After today, you'll be trapped with me again.

If you're not ready to surrender with me now, then too bad because here we go!

Bwahahahaha!

********************************************************************************

Good day everyone, this is not Michelle. I, Gloria Weber, author of Gaslight Demons, published by Morbidgames Publishing, have taken control of this blog as part of my Gaslight Demons Virtual Book Tour. In other words, I’m a mere guest blogger, who is humbly thankful for being allowed this opportunity.

I’m here to share some of my thoughts on writing. And the thought of the day is character goals. Character goals can manifest in a number of ways. For the sake of not droning on for hours, I’ll cover two forms of character goals that appear in my novel: situational goals and self decided goals.

Self decided goals, as I call them, are goals the character has set up for herself. I view this like a fork in the road of a character’s life path. If they had gone left, choosing not to make this a goal and following it through, things could have been different. The man who picks revenge over forgiveness or the child who sees a figure skater and devotes time to becoming one are examples of this.

In Gaslight Demons, my main character Sophia Nogard decides to become an Occult Officer. Though she could have moved on with her life, she chose to join up for the express goal of getting her father’s remains back. Had she chosen to become a Water Works Wizard it wouldn’t have been the same story, nor would she have developed the other personal goals, such as “not being like the rest of them.”

The other type of goals, situational character goals, are generally goals that are set and have to met due to what is going on around the character. These can be long term or just short term goals. Often these are used in action or horror genres. A short-term goal could be as simple as making it through the woods, where the serial killer is hiding, because at the other end there’s a bus station. Choices they make along the way could reveal to the character aspects of her personality she never knew about, like being willing to sacrifice a friend for her own safety.

Sophia ends up developing a long-term goal during the course of my novel. Her goal is to find the magical, serial murderer in order to protect her friends. In the process of fulfilling this goal she is forced to examine herself and take risks that she might not have otherwise taken.

And in the end it has to be a goal rather than a choice. By making it a goal, it makes it that more important and allows more of the character to be revealed. The more the character learns about herself the more she grows.

If you would like to find out if Sophia ever gets her father’s remains back, what risks she has to take while pursuing her long-term goal, or what else happens in my book, please visit my site for places to buy Gaslight Demons, published by Morbidgames Publishing, written by me, Gloria Weber: http://gloriaweber.wordpress.com/ There you will also find my previous virtual book tour stops and dates for more to come.

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, Beth Bernobich has sent her latest book, Ars Memoriae, on a promotional book tour. And you can be the next to receive it! All you have to do is be the first responder in my comments section below and agree to blog about the book, post a picture of it in "the wild", and when done reading, send it to the first commenter in your own blog post reviewing it. Pretty easy, eh?

So first a picture of the wild, then a review, then we'll see who is paying attention today and looking for a fun read!




"Time was like sunlight pouring in all directions, susceptible to prisms and mirrors, or even a child's hand."

-Commander Adrian Dee, Ars Memoriae


Commander Adrian Dee is tortured by false memories, apparent slips in time relating to a past that does not exist. Long banished from the Eireann Court, he is summoned back to serve his queen and unravel a political tangle that threatens the stability of his home nation.

There is a lot to love about this book. It is obviously well constructed, and the corresponding cover is quite beautiful and evocative of the story within. It is a slim volume, almost reminiscent of my childhood reads, but far more complex in nature. Beth Bernobich's writing is smooth and elegant, like a fine glass of sherry, and her strong narrative voice carries this work.

You can feel the pieces of history peeking between the cracks of words, slipping between the pages and onto your fingers. The book is brimming with little tidbits that both steady this alternative reality and make me more curious of the multitude of stories which must exist within it already. So interesting are these glimpses into the greater world, that I actually found myself slightly disappointed that the book was not longer and more all-encompassing of all the smaller stories we seemed to pass by. This is especially true of Commander Dee's odd false memories, which add such lovely flavor but feel as though they ought to have played a stronger part in the narrative. That's a small quibble, though, in what is a very entertaining book full of political intrigue, second-guessing, and enough twists and deadly consequences to keep even the intelligent and canny Commander Dee struggling to stay ahead.

I would recommend this book for a quiet read with much potential and for a view into the vast world Beth Bernobich has created. I can even see this being a conversation piece set decoratively on the coffee table and then passed around amongst your curious friends (which seems an odd thing to say unless you have the book actually in your hands to appreciate the production values behind it).

I just wanted to share a quick excerpt from the dreaded WIP, "West of the Moon". Why? I don't know. It just sounded like fun. But first, something to look forward to!

Tomorrow, I'll be posting a review and picture of Beth Bernobich's Ars Memoriae as a part of her latest promotional book tour (as detailed here). The first person to respond to the review will receive the copy, mailed directly from me so that you can also read and respond and help the book make its way into the world.

We all love books, and this is a fun promotion idea, so pay attention tomorrow, folks!

And now for a super short bit of a bloody excerpt (as if I have any non-bloody excerpts...):


***

Blood welled from the newly carved crescent curved along Anusha's cheek. It was all she could focus on, that hot blood sliding across her skin. Dripping from her chin. Splattering bright red across the back of her left hand. Her fingers clutched the walkway mesh and trembled. They were numb. Distant. Like somebody else's hands. Like somebody else's body.

 

"Make sure Zota gets the message," Burant had said before leaving. "I don't want to have to do this again."

***

Okay, I am off to edit for the afternoon. Everybody behave until tomorrow's promotional Ars Memoriae book tour post!

No, there was nothing wrong with the NetBook I bought last year.

Well, technically nothing wrong.

However, a good friend of mine visited this Summer and was appalled--APPALLED!--that I had bought an Acer NetBook when he had the capability to get me an HP NetBook for free. I remember him telling me long ago that he could get me free computers, but asking for free stuff out of the blue just isn't something I do, and I had somewhat forgotten the offer by the time I decided last year I wanted a NetBook.

So, the day finally arrived. New HP NetBook day. My friend didn't just get me a standard HP NetBook, though. Oh no, he sent me a special edition Tord Boontje designed NetBook with upgraded RAM and lots of happy shiny. I mean, this thing is brimming with so much happy shiny it makes my eyes hurt!

I am flabbergasted by all the pretty. So, so much pretty. Layered designs on designs of a forest and hidden animals. Instead of talking about the pretty anymore, though, I am just going to show you the pretty!




The box my pretty came in--see, even the box is pretty!





Matching NetBook sleeve!
 

Secret hidden animal alert! So, so pretty!






Even the inside is made of shiny happiness!

I recently posted a signal boost for a couple of items, including an ICFA Scholarship for PoC. Some concerns have been raised about the scholarship, though. For best info, read shweta_narayan 's LJ entry here and then follow her links to the discussion in karnythia  's LJ comments (and it is a very interesting discussion, I promise you).

I am just posting a quickie today to boost a couple of signals (because signal boosting is fun and ought to be done more often):


1. ICFA Scholarship for PoC (link found via the awesome shweta_narayan ) -- The theme of this year's International Conference on the Fantastic in Arts is "Race and the Fantastic", and the wonderful guest of honor are Nalo Hopkinson, Laurence Yep, and Takayuki Tatsumi. Click on the link for the scholarship details (this scholarship is pretty inclusive of all convention expenses, including airfare)(is that not just awesomeness?).


2. Clarkesworld Citizenship Drive -- For a small donation, you can become a Clarkesworld citizen! Okay, I have personally been a bit awful about keeping up with short story reading lately, but Clarkesworld still remains one of my favorite short story locations. Go check it out!


Alright, I'm going to go wrap a cat around my head and see if that helps my headache (because there's nothing better for a headache than a clawed furball of doom).

Well, I just received a package of books from B&N today, and as usual, some advertisements were included. This is totally expected, and I typically pay no attention to them and simply toss them into the recycling bin.

However, the advertisements this time definitely caught my attention.

Plastic baggies, TWELVE of them, for Cell Phones for Soldiers. Yes, you read that correctly--twelve frikkin' cell phone bags. Now, I am all for finding uses for old cell phones. Why waste something just because you picked up the latest greatest new gadget? But is there seriously a family with twelve excess cell phones ready to donate? Seriously?

What makes this all sadder is that I do not own a cell phone. Never have.

Yup.

:)

(copied from sartorias )

What is this?
care_faith_hope is a fandom auction to benefit faithhopetricks. Bidding begins on September 28, 2009, Monday, 10 a.m. Pacific time, and closes on October 10, 2009, Saturday, 11:59 p.m. Pacific time.

What's the cause?
This auction is to raise money for the medical expenses of faithhopetricks and her husband. They have no health insurance and no savings, and her husband requires immediate heart surgery. Both have other potentially life-threatening conditions which have gone untreated or poorly treated due to their lack of health insurance. More detailed information is in the user info of care_faith_hope.

Some details have been left out for reasons of privacy. Please do not contact faithhopetricks to inform her of government assistance programs she can apply for. The mods are working on that. However, if you know of job openings for an IT professional in greater Seattle, her husband will be seeking a job as soon as he recovers from the heart surgery.

How can you help?
You can bid on fanfic, original fic, vids, cookies, memorabilia, critique/betas, and much more! Or you can offer your skills and services as a writer, vidder, baker, knitter, or whatever else you'd like.

Current offers include homemade baked goods and candy, unique memorabilia from and a guided tour of the Jim Henson Company, books signed by the authors, vids and fanfic, and much more!

This post has full information on bidding.

It's easy to get caught up reading other folks' LJ entries and forget to set aside time for my own, but it is time to make a post and fight against the wasteland that is my LJ!

1. FenCon was a blast this weekend.

I survived moderating the Social Networking panel and was even complimented on my moderation of it (though I have trouble believing the compliments of younger guys after a convention where I was having a fun conversation with a guy up until the point he noticed my wedding ring, and then he left)(I guess my conversation wasn't as interesting as I thought it was)(*sigh*).

( More about FenCon... )

I visited some other readings, other panels, and did a lot of hanging out at the bar. Overall, it was a really fun convention, and I enjoyed my first time being a panelist at this one. I'm looking forward to it next year (and ConDFW in February!).

2. Eggplant--with arms and noses! Thanks to the wonderful asakiyume for the nifty look into the life of lovable eggplants.

3. More asakiyume love with her thoughtful entry on a writer's intent and what they actually write.

4. pabba celebrates the coming of fall. He has some new superhero comic coming online soon, so keep an eye on him! His style is sweet and funny and very personable.

5. I'd add a fifth thing, but then I'd have to kill you.

Like the rest of the FenCon awesome panelists, I have received my schedule. Yay!


Friday  9:00 pm  Trinity 6
Building Relationships: How to Use Social Networks to Get What You Need

Description: Looking for a job? Looking to hire someone? Looking for help with a project? Learn how to navigate the maze of social networks such as Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter to help realize your goals.

(I am moderating this panel--joyous joy!--and I know for sure that j_cheney will be on it as well)


Saturday  11:00 am  Director's
Reading

Description: Me. Reading. Possibly somebody else reading with me, but it is unknown at this moment. Everyone likes reading, right?

The decision of what to read is always difficult, and I am leaning toward one of my somewhat complex shorts, "The Rivers Between Them", about a river made flesh and walking her death following the doctor who has stolen her essence.


Saturday  7:00 pm  Trinity 6
Random Novel Reading

Description: You won't believe this: Panelists read random passages from randomly selected books. Not for the fainthearted. Oxygen may be required. Be prepared to laugh uproariously.

I am not sure who is selecting the books and such, and the only other panelist I know of so far is shadowhelm (though I am sure there are more!), but I bet this is going to be super fun! If you show up, you'll get to hear me do stupid voices for whatever it is I'll be reading as well. Voices make everything better.



So that is where you will find me scheduled during FenCon next weekend. Outside of that, I like to hang out at readings a lot (I really love readings), and panels on the writing industry. And the bar, but we won't go too far into that. I'm looking forward to meeting some fun new people at FenCon this year, and catching up with friends, and I hope some of my LJ and Twitter folk will be in the area to come hang out.

While mowing the lawn today, I noticed a cicada clutching the old husk of its body and was reminded instantly of childhood. As a small girl, I collected numerous insects for "pets" and stuck them in little jars until finally they died. I did try to feed them, but I never really knew what any of them ate.

One of my pets was a cicada named Mrs. Kincaid. I would take her out of her jar and set her on my shirt to watch TV with me, convinced she loved me (because otherwise she'd have flown away, right?). Then I would pull out my pet walking stick whose name is now forgotten, and I would set her on my shirt. My walking stick would never stay where I put her as she much preferred to watch TV from the top of my head.

But neither of them tried to flee. They just stayed on me and watched TV. And when we were done, I'd place them back into their jars and set them in my room, maybe with some fresh grass (it was the best I could come up with for what they might eat).

Of course they both died. But not before both of them laid eggs (which I thought were some kind of bug turd until the day the eggs hatched)(of course, hatching in a jar was not conducive to the health of the young bugs).

In memory of Ms. Kincaid and my walking stick of doom, though, I took pictures of this new fresh cicada stretching her wings on the side of our Asian pear tree. The photos where one of the wings was still somewhat wet and curled didn't turn out well, but I still think these are some nifty pictures (for me, not being anything remotely close to a skilled photographer).




Isn't she a beauty? Golden and green and glistening in the sun.




Leaving behind the husk that bound her to earth alone...




Dark cicada of my dreams...

It's International Blog Against Racism Week, and I find myself rather self-disgusted that I've let half the week pass and have said nothing. Is it really so difficult to speak up for one week? For one day? There are bloggers who manage to speak up every day, to drag themselves out of bed and fight past the point of exhaustion and stress-induced health issues. They fight because silence means letting the issue be buried, because silence means accepting the status quo, accepting powerlessness, and none of these things are right. We cannot close our eyes to a disease--and racism, whether overt or inadvertent, is a disease--and hope it magically goes away. We can't be so scared of saying something wrong, something offensive, that we never discuss the issue at all.

So, yeah. I am ignorant. I know I am. I've learned a lot more this past year regarding racism, especially regarding white privilege, than my entire preceding life, and I still feel exceedingly ignorant. I mean, I always knew racism existed, but I thought it was one of those things that if everyone learned to ignore color, it would magically disappear, future generations of children would be instantly shiny-happy, and world peace would quickly follow. Naive, I know, and nowhere near correct or a good idea. Color shouldn't disappear; it shouldn't be made invisible. It should be celebrated. We should revel in our diversity and share the experiences of our lives so that we can all understand the many variations of existing, of living, of finding joy.

I am still internalizing a lot of what I have read this past year, trying to fit all the pieces into my world view in a way I can better articulate (I hate feeling inarticulate about important issues because it tends to lend justification to those arguing opposing views my gut tells me are harmful). I can't wait for full articulation to speak, though. I mean, technically, I can, but that is part of the problem, the fact that I as a white female can afford not to speak.

So again, yeah.

This post is a bit rambling, and for that I apologize. I do want to link to this wonderful essay, Looking for Clues, by Nalo Hopkinson. Particularly striking to me is the moment where she discovers Samuel R. Delaney is black:




To close with, maybe some of you out there are a lot like me and have seen IBARW pass by and thought maybe you should say something but didn't. There's always a reason: laziness, fear, or something else entirely. I don't know the reason for your silence.

But you know what, saying nothing is the same as saying something, only in a very bad way. You're saying it's easier to ignore the disease than it is to confront it. That it's easier to close your eyes than risk being wrong. So, dangit, say something. Anything. Maybe it will be stupid, maybe it will be wrong, but how can you know unless you open up a discussion. Ignoring the disease doesn't make it go away. Knowledge is power. Awareness is power.

When douglascohen  offered a free issue of Realms of Fantasy to the first 200 responders on his LiveJournal, I was pretty excited. I mean, I've never read an issue of the magazine, but I've wanted for a while to get a better feel for it. I just happen to be a really slow subscriber when it comes to magazines (it takes me approximately a year of wanting to talk myself into the actual subscription phase of a magazine).

The only catch with the free issue, of course, was that I had to agree to review it, for better or worse.

Well, here we are. I finished reading the issue last week and have been letting it sit in my brain a bit before tackling it here.

This is an important issue for RoF, a return to the land of the living after Sovereign Media closed them down earlier this year. The community outcry to save RoF only made me wish I'd picked up an issue even more.

Unfortunately, after finishing this issue, I didn't find myself particularly excited. Not enough to part with money which has become a bit more precious since I am no longer a huge salary programmer with money to fling about as I please (I flung my money about responsibly, but I certainly never had to consider whether I ought to spend money on a magazine subscription or something more practical since I could do both). I'm not going to discuss the non-fiction much, though nearly half the magazine does consist of non-fiction. I am a fly-by reader of reviews and other articles and don't base my subscriptions on them. It's the short stories that ultimately draw me in or fling me right back out.

In "Our Lady in Scarlet" (Tanith Lee),  Andelm is a young alchemist/scholar with a belief in his invincibility despite the plague raging around him. He even goes so far as to handle the corpses bound for the plague pits in order to better study the effects of the plague. His invincibility becomes tested, however, when the inn he is staying in turns to darker powers, the Red Virgin, to ward the plague away. As plague signs strike the inn, it is closed shut with all its inhabitants trapped inside and the Red Virgin pushing at Andelm's door.

The story is well-enough written, but it never captured my imagination. The horror of the Red Virgin stalking Andelm never struck me as any more or less horrific than the plague itself, and as such, much of the power of the story was lost to me. That was a shame as I like Tanith Lee's writing in general, but not every story is meant for every reader.

As a quick side note, the end of the above story is where a advertisement package for an herbal/crystal company was stickied in, and the sticky glop was so persistent that the illustration for the next story almost completely tore out. I could have been perhaps a bit less clumsy in its removal (and it did need removing as it was a rather bulky and stiff and annoying packet), but I am still annoyed at the near-loss of the cat-eating-chicken illustration, my favorite in this issue.

In "Healing Benjamin" (Dennis Danvers), our nameless narrator (further referred to as Nameless) resurrects his lifetime friend and beloved cat, Benjamin, soon after the moment of death. Thirty years later, Benjamin and Nameless are still living together, though Benjamin is perpetually four years old and in perfect health. Nobody questions the situation as Nameless has become adept over life covering the situation, and who would believe him anyway? When Nameless' latest girlfriend Shannon, the first woman Benjamin truly adores and approves of, begins to dig into the secret, Nameless has no choice but to start down the path of revealing the truth and convincing her he is not insane in the process.

This was a wonderful story, touching from the very first moment to the very last. And the element of both absurdity and horror so convincingly intermixed when Nameless proves his powers of resurrection to Shannon are perfectly executed. But it is the emotional resonance between Benjamin and his owner, the boy who couldn't bear his best friend to die, that makes this a must-read.

In "Digging for Paradise" (Jan Creasey), Hadro is a skilled digger forced by circumstance to serve the sorcerer Ren Gessel in order to accumulate enough money to bribe free his imprisoned wife. Unfortunately, he's been tricked into sleeping through time itself, leaving his wife and family long behind him, so that he could dig free the accumulated power of ages soaked into a series of stones buried long ago by Ren Gessel. Those involved are promised power enough to fulfill their dreams, including bringing back Hadro's wife from the dead, but trusting a man who just took your entire life away is not an easy task.

This was an interesting story, though it lacked the emotional punch concerning Hadro and his wife which I think would have pushed it up a level in greatness. But the story is more an observation on trust than it is one of loss, so the lack of focus on the Hadro's emotional toil is understandable within that context.

In "Well and Truly Broken" (Bruce Holland Rogers), Rose and her sisters are warned no to play in the pine forest for fear of the Fair Folk stealing them away. Of course this means the sisters must disobey. After three days of waiting, they finally see the Fair Folk dancing. The dance is disrupted by the sisters, but one of the dancers stays behind and tells the curious girls of the secret to the power of her race, the way to live as they live and dance forever. And in this secret, the future of the sisters is undone.

This is a nice flash piece, most of it setting up for the secret. What I like about it most is the chance that the secret is nothing at all but a vile fairy trick, but the girls commit to it nonetheless. And even if it is not a fairy trick, there is a sadness to the requirement that the sisters don't yet seem old enough to understand. I think that is what really makes this story work, though.


That is it for story content, for as I mentioned above, half of the magazine is articles and reviews and such. If there were a few more stories per issue, than it might be enough to pull me into a subscription, or if all of the stories were complete knock-outs. As it stands, I enjoyed my free issue and appreciate the opportunity RoF has given so many people in seeing if the magazine is a good fit for their reading, but I am not quite enamored of it enough to go further.

I wish RoF the best of luck in their relaunch, though.

(And yes, I am purposely avoiding the cover controversy as it has been handled well enough by others out there and looks to be a closed conversation now)(though K Tempest Bradford's post with the naked unicorn man cover is totally awesome and full of win, primarily because I can actually pull a lot of emotion and story out of the picture despite its satirical nature).

I haven't posted in a while, but today I shall torture you all with bad haiku, courtesy my husband and myself. Yes, this is apparently yet another way we distract each other during the work day.

Our haiku adventure begins with my husband responding to my comment about our cat, Nin, chirping when I stare intently at her nose without actually petting her...

(and yes, our cat does indeed chirp)

( Click here for eye-searingly bad haiku... )

The last one from me is concerning another of our cats, Smudge, who around that moment decided to drag my thawing bag of chicken off the counter. Evil kitty!

Well, I did warn you all this was bad haiku, right? Yeah...

You know, if a child has to ask if they are "too dark" to be allowed to swim in a pool, there is something hideously wrong with the world.

Yahoo article: Camp: Private Pa. pool turned away minority kids

 

My mind has been boggling over this one since yesterday, and I can't even begin to understand how those children must feel after the experience. I hope that private club gets their butts sued off, though that won't erase the hideousness of the situation from the children's memories. I doubt that's the kind of treatment you ever forget.

I just read a short story about bread. Talking bread. Not that everyone can understand it or that all bread speaks--the "mass-produced loaves found in supermarkets are not alive, not real bread"; they are "injected sponge".

So, yes. I just read a story about bread that talks but can only be understood by those random folk who have developed an understanding of the language.

And I must say, I have never been so fascinated by bread in my entire life.

Read it.

"Tales of the Golden Legend", by Robert Freeman Wexler. First published in The Third Alternative #30, Spring 2002. The version I read can be found in the chapbook "Psychological Methods to Sell Should be Destroyed" from Spilt Milk Press.

I have seen a few folk posting up pictures of their writing workspaces recently, and it seems like a fun idea.

My writing workspace:



As you can see, this is my dining room table. It provides a nice view outside (I love myself a good window seat!) and comes complete with a cat who is pretending to not be in the way in this particular picture. If you could see the cat (Nin) in her normal position, my outline and notes to the left would not be visible, there would be a huge head shoving my netbook over, and her paw would be draped over my hands in her attempt to steal attention. Do not be fooled by her cuteness here--Nin is evil and wants me to quit my job as a writer and become a full-time professional Nin-petter. The only other thing wrong in this picture is my mug of tea is missing (notice the empty coaster in front of my water bottle). Tea is very important to writing.

Hooray for writing workspaces!

Yes, today is a double review day! (because I forgot to post up my review of Ships of Magic a few days ago--doh!)


This is the second in the Traitor to the Crown trilogy, a look at the American Revolution--with witches! The first in the series, The Patriot Witch, was reviewed by me here.


We continue the story of Proctor Brown and his weaving through the American Revolution as the British troops begin a strong push against General Washington's armies in the north. Of course, a strong reason for the pressing back of General Washington is due to the foul spells of the Covenant, the group of evil witches from overseas who have been manipulating history for centuries to serve their own purpose. They do not want the American Revolution to succeed and will do anything to stop it, including chaining the souls of the violently dead to every member of the American army. Proctor Brown and the other witches he has connected up with at The Farm are the only ones who can see the trapped souls draining the will to fight from Washington's men, and if they hope to break the curse, they must do so secretly or be hanged for the powers they were born with.


Pros:
Bootzamon! Bootzamon! Bootzamon!  Seriously, Bootzamon was stand down my favorite character in this book, a living scarecrow animated with the relentless soul of a witch dead centuries past. Sure you can kill him, but then his soul is sent to a new scarecrow to begin his hunt anew! Just the sheer fear of Bootzamon every time a wide floppy hat is mentioned is enough to make him one of the most memorable characters in this trilogy for me--far more frightening than Old Nance from the first book.

Reading American history intertwined with secret witchcraft is very appealing--something fresh and different from the typical fantasies I've been surrounded in lately. I crave that freshness.

Even better, there is such a huge sense of despair in this book--the countless tries to break Washington's curse; the descriptions of Washington with twelve or more spirits dragging at his feet, pulling at his arms, whispering words of dread into his ears as he struggles to stay inspired and inspire the men around him; the drifting of soldiers from the army, twisted souls still attached to them, as they fail to stand against the dark powers arrayed against them and the constant pushing of the Hessian mercenaries. Even Proctor and his fellow witches struggle to hold on to hope as everything they try to cure the curse fails, time after time. But even this despair has a bright side, an admiration for those men who stand against all odds and the inevitability of their doom because they believe the dream of freedom is worth everything. And that comes through all the stronger due to the overwhelming despair surrounding them.

The play of all these emotions was masterful with all the story's threads mirroring the theme of struggling against impossible odds and finding a way to win, not by any means necessary, but by any means noble and grand.


Cons:

There is not much that struck me as off in this book--in fact, I'd like to say it is superior to the first in the series, A Patriot Witch (and I really liked A Patriot Witch, too!). The only thing that occasionally irks is exactly how involved Proctor Brown becomes sometimes in smaller events of the American Revolution. Almost as if he is being forced to touch every single historical moment, and in that touching, somewhat diminishes the power of the moments for those individuals history praises. I think this is a fine line to walk, a line which was better handled in A Patriot Witch than in this sequel. The sheer power of the book overwhelms this occasional groan, though.

Mom's choice this month. :)


Althea Vestrit has always considered herself heir to the family liveship, Vivacia. So when her father dies, awakening the ship at last, Althea is shocked at the string of family politics which rips her legacy from her, handing it to her unwilling nephew, Wintrow, instead. Of course, Wintrow is displeased with events as well since his family has taken him from the priesthood where he was happy and forced him to sail the ship with his father until it can be completely handed over to him. The newly awakened liveship, Vivacia, of course detects all this anguish and pain and must struggle to discover who she is through the division of desire without going insane. And on top of all of this, the rather unlovable pirate Kennit is trying to capture a liveship of his own to boost his plans of seizing control of the Pirate Isles.

Pros:
This book starts a bit slow, but once the Vivacia awakens, Althea's family members turn against each other with a viciousness that is both unsettling and exhilarating to read. Characters who seemed rather set in their courses must shift with the violent winds that now mark their path in order to salvage anything of what they once dreamed. Watching the pirate Kennit do his vile work while everyone around him ascribes more virtuous motives to his actions also begins to draw you in, waiting on somebody to finally figure out that this man is not anybody's friend (and his perceived kindness is more often the result of the manipulative awakened wooden charm at his wrist than any words of Kennit's).

The worldbuilding is also quite fabulous-poisonous sea serpents trailing slave ships like dogs waiting for scraps, the mysterious and malformed Rain Wild Traders and their connections to the trade of objects that seem to have souls of their own, the original Bingtown Trader families and their struggle to hold on to the promises made generations ago. So much wonderful worldbuilding and politicking here.


Cons:

Unfortunately, this is the sort of trilogy in which the first book does not end with a feeling of any sort of completeness. So many threads are left hanging, that it is not possible to read this book alone and feel satisfied. This isn't a bad thing if you have the time to immediately read all three (and as a note, I have not read books 2 and 3, so I cannot speak for how well they complete their stories and the overarching story), but if you are looking for a book that you can occasionally just pick up and enjoy for itself, this is probably not going to work out in the end.


As for my mom's opinion on the book, I have no clue (else I'd share it with you!). I still have to catch her at some point when she's not at work or ready to fall asleep. Heh.

This is a pretty simple recipe, but I have some folk on Twitter asking about the yummy pizza crust recipe I finally found (because the last one I tried was seriously meh), so here we go!

The crust and pizza cooking instructions come from The Family Circle Encyclopedia of Cooking (1990 edition in case there are others). I like to call it the big red book. My parents gave it to me as a gift on my way to college so I could teach myself how to cook, and cook I did! There are some tasty recipes in it, some bad ones, but that is true of all cookbooks. Overall, I have definitely gotten good use of it over the years. The two recipes I used as a basis for these instructions are "Easy Pizza Dough" (for the dough!) and "Sausage and Pepper Pizza" (for the cooking times and temps and ingredient order stuff).

The ingredients in the "toppings" section will be very vague on amounts because I sort of throw whatever I have laying around onto the pizza. Pick your toppings as it pleases you and put as much as you want on!


BBQ Pizza

For the Crust:
1 package active dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup very warm water
3 1/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour (okay, I totally don't sift my flour, but I'm specifying sifted anyway for you guys)
1 1/2 tsp salt

For the Toppings: (this is where we run into me using some leftover meats and fresh veggies sitting around to make something new)
Leftover beef ribs, chopped
Leftover hot wing chicken, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 medium onion, halved and sliced thin
BBQ sauce
Cheddar cheese (because I am out of all my other cheeses right now and don't feel like going to the store today)


To make the crust:

1. Sprinkle yeast and sugar into very warm water ("very warm water" should feel comfortable warm when dropped on wrist). Stir to dissolve and let it sit for about 10 minutes or until lots of fun bubbling oozy stuff has occurred.

2. Combine the flour and salt in a large bowl and make a well in the center. Pour the yeast mixture into the well and work it into the dough until you have a lovely stiff dough.

3. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes (okay, I got tired of kneading a bit early and stopped maybe 2 minutes in). If you need to add a bit of flour here and there to keep it from sticking, go for it--just not too much!

4. Place in a lightly-oiled medium-sized bowl and turn the dough until the oil coats it all over (keeps it from sticking to the bowl after rising and from forming a weird skin). Cover with a clean towel and hide in a warm place away from drafts for 45 minutes or until double in volume. Punch down (the fun part!).


To make the pizza:

1. Lightly oil a roasting pan with medium-height sides (because we are making a rectangular pizza!)(of course, you can put it on a pizza pan if you have one). Sprinkle the pan lightly with cornmeal. Roll and stretch the pizza dough to fit the pan. Let rise for 20 minutes.

2. While the dough is rising in the pan, heat up a skillet to medium heat, toss in some oil, and saute the onions until they are soft. I like to keep going until they also caramelize a bit, but you can stop at the soft point and be fine. Or not cook them at all and just let the over do the cooking later. Set aside and let cool.

3. Preheat the oven to 450. When dough is done rising in the pan, spread BBQ sauce across dough and add however much meat you want. Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes and then remove from the oven.

4. Add peppers and onions and anything else you like to the pizza and top with a respectable amount of cheese.

5. Bake 15 to 20 minutes longer or until crust is golden brown and cheese is melted and bubbly (Mmmm). Let it rest for about 5 minutes, and slice up for eating!