May Ramblings

I've started several blog entries this past month. One about Columbo and the detective pastoral, tying it into earlier Midsomer Murder episodes. One about the ending of Huck Finn and how it predicts this current moment we are in (makes sense because we're in the failure of the Civil Rights Movement and Twain was writing during the failure of Reconstruction). One was about AI and tax work and how I don't see how AI will take it all over because taxes are fundamentally human work, and AI isn't good with humans. And humans are complicated. A lot of times our questions and comments are the top part of an iceberg; so much remains unseen or invisibly supporting our visible statements.

But those are half done and probably just unfocused ramblings. And this is supposed to be a writing and reading blog, right? (It's just me, the perils of being a mood reader, against an organized TBR)

So this newsletter will have some thoughts, some things I read in May, things I enjoyed, and then some more about Tal! How's that for a format? Let me know!

First off Happy Pride! I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe June planned. It's going to be summer officially in a few months, and the weather is behaving as Ohio June weather should, but I expect a long, hot summer, which means I'm enjoying these cool mornings and evenings, with the windows open.

Things I read

I spent most of May reading the Chronicles of Elantra by Michelle Sagara. It's a 19 book series that started in 2005. It's a fantasy, but no romance, which is funny because it was put out by Harlequin Nocturne and then has moved around the various imprints within Harlequin and then Harper Collins (parent company of Harlequin)

A book's publisher can tell someone a lot about the type of book they are getting. Tor Books puts out plenty of speculative fiction. Harlequin is often synonymous for romance. Scholastic does children's books, including YA. Teneborous Press does horror. Berkley does the same five story with cartoon covers (don't get me started on my issues with Berkley and Avon books right now).

I had expectations for these books because of it being a Harlequin and it did not deliver on any of them. It is a second world urban fantasy with deep worldbuilding. Each book is set up as a stand alone but with an overall arc. I enjoyed the world. I enjoyed Kaylin who has a lot of things unlikable about her, but she's compelling nonetheless (and interesting to see how unlikable a character could be in 2005 as compared to now. Unlikable FMCs will get an author flamed). There are some early 2010 narrative choices I found interesting and a few I found irritating. Overall, it was a great month. The first book was written very differently than the rest, which could be Segara finding her feet or a new editor as she switched imprints. It's a good read for a fantasy lover. And apparently these are quite popular! Reactor, Tor's magazine, had a couple of articles about them. I'd never heard of them until I stumbled upon them.

Things I Enjoyed

I didn't do much watching of anything last month. Too deep in Elantra. We did see The Mandalorian and Grogu, which the kiddo loved. I thought the puppetry and action scenes were alright, but the dialogue bad. The final hand to hand combat scene paled in comparison to Peter and Miraz's fight in Prince Caspian.

Yes, I still am on my Narnia and Peter Pevensie kick.The choreographer of the Peter fight scene did an incredible job of using the physicality of the fighters to tell the story of what kind of fighters they are (the BBc one is also delicious because the actor playing Peter is actually a child. William Moseley was 20). And a lot of the moves are textbook medieval fencing moves. That's what gets me, you know.

I started watching a wuxia C-drama, Glory in Shadows, but its too melo for me. I finally saw Patriot Games with Harrison Ford. What an interesting movie. One of the things I often think about is how characters like Jack Ryan in Patriot Games or Alec Baldwin's version in Hunt for Red October are technicians. They aren't action stars and how the move from technician to action star has really permeated our cop fiction and how it probably has permeated our pop culture as police think of themselves as last action heroes. Michael Mann's Manhunter is really interested in police as technicians, and not heroes or action stars. (Now I need to rewatch Collateral to see how that changes). A thesis that needs developing.

I am very excited about The Vampire Lestat coming soon!

Writing Things

Totally changing the heading structure here.

I worked on editing Tal this month, using notes I've received from generous readers. I suppose I should start asking for arc reviewers. I worked on my website. I tried to get Goodreads to connect my prior book to my correct account but they still insist The Devil's Bargain was written by an elderly English woman who writes romance novels. Honestly, I'd love that to be me, but I'm middle aged and not English.

I also outlined my next novel that I had did a fast draft of last year during my personal NaNo. Kit Miller is just turning 40 and she never expected to see her ex again. After all, she took the money his mother gave her to break up with him (her mother was dying. She was drowning in medical debt and too many part time jobs in a recession New York in 2010). But turns out he's the CEO of the company she's auditing. Unfortunately, the sparks are still there and he has questions as to why she broke up with him, while she wants to know why his books suggest he is laundering money.

Second chance romances are hard. Why would it work this time when it didn't work before? That's what I'm trying to answer.

Gilded Age

Tal is set in a steampunk gilded age, specifically in 1897. If you watch the tv show, The Gilded Age, it takes place early 1880s. You can tell by the bustle. The outline of dresses from the end of the Civil War to the beginning of the 20th century, with the exception of the massive leg-of-mutton sleeves in the early 1890s and the bustles in the 1870s, became smaller as time progressed. Less volume on the sides and more in the front and far more ornate decoration, particularly if you are wealthy.

The show is also because this was the rise of the robber barons, beginning late 1870s. They were riding off the massive growth after the end of the Civil War, especially in mechanical industries, railroads, and textile factories. The show is basically copying from Alva Vanderbilt's rise to social prominence, with deviations, because the show is about the rise and fall of two particular families. The economic and social background gives plenty of texture and background for them to react to and with.

I chose this time because it was a time of massive upheaval. In Tal's world, there is a tension between magic users and mundane. As science becomes more powerful, and technical, mages are less needed. In the 1890s, there was a huge move with industrialization and with labor. There was a question of who held the power and how to wield it and who was suffering. There was also a market crash in 1893 and 1896. The economy was fluctuating and wealth and power was being further accumulated in the hands of the few.

I wanted some of that world and those tensions as a background to what Tal and Daniel experience as they search for a killer stripping mages of their magic. Nothing happens in a vacuum and these outside forces may be affecting their search and driving the killer. There was also forward movement in the suffragette cause, of which Tal is a part, and affects how she sees her gender in relation to the world.

PBS's excellent The Gilded Age documentary is available for free on YouTube right now. I also recommend the podcast The Gilded Gentleman which looks at social and cultural mores of this time.

What are you reading or watching right now? Any summer activities that you are looking forward to?

Until I get the urge to write again, ciao and take care!