Tag: publishing

I Got Nominated … Sort of

On By Jennifer Mugrage17 Comments

(Is the above really the latest Sunshine Blogger Award logo? Looks kinda messy.)

So, Bookstooge sort-of-nominated me for the Sunshine Blogger Award! Thank you, Bookstooge! I am so flattered. I think his exact words were, “If you’re reading this, consider yourself nominated, because it means you have a pulse.”

Rules For The Sunshine Blogger Award:

  • Display the award’s official logo somewhere on your blog.
  • Thank the person who nominated you.
  • Provide a link to your nominator’s blog.
  • Answer your nominators’ questions.
  • Nominate up to 11 bloggers.
  • Ask your nominees 11 questions.
  • Notify your nominees by commenting on at least one of their blog posts.

Questions from Bookstooge:

  1. Why Would Anyone Consider Cereal to be Soup?

It’s because they are trying to categorize things according to algorithmic rules/decision trees instead of the way the human mind normally works, which is by constructing a schema for the thing in question and then eyeballing it.

With schemas, if the thing mostly resembles the schema, it is considered an instance of that thing, even if it misses checking some important boxes. And if it checks all the boxes but manifestly does NOT resemble the schema at all, then it’s not an instance of that thing.

Cereal is in the latter category. It’s an ungodly modern creation of Mr. Kellogg, who believed that eating meat was morally wrong as well as unhealthy, and sought to banish it from the breakfast table. And I say this as someone who very much likes breakfast cereal, particularly as an evening snack, even though I know it has wreaked havoc with my metabolism (see question #10).

2. Why Do You Blog?

I blog to get you interested in my books. Go buy ’em. BUT, warning, don’t buy the Kindle version of The Strange Land until the end of next week, when it will cost 99 cents because of a special promo.

3. How Do You Justify Your Existence? (I got that one from the Tales of the Black Widowers, good isn’t it?)

Yep, it’s a good one.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

“So God created man. In the image of God created He him, male and female created He them. And He said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, the cattle and the creatures that move along the ground.'”

Edit: By quoting this passage, I am NOT asserting that the only justification for our life is to reproduce … i.e., that your life somehow has no meaning if you are not a parent. I happen to have been given three children, but that’s God’s gift to me, not mine to Him. No, the point of quoting this passage is this: I justify my existence because God made me. He made us. He wanted there to be people. He wanted us to exist as male and female. And, per the latter part of the passage, He wanted there to be a lot of us. If you exist and you are a human, He is happy about that.

4. How Do You Choose Who to Follow?

Unfortunately, I’m a lot like Trump in this way. If you say nice things to me, I like you and then I follow you.

An alternative route is that you posted something that really interested me. This usually means book reviews, discussion about writing, theology, ancient history, and sometimes art.

5. If John McClane and John Wick were tied on a railroad track and you could only set one of them free, which would you choose and why?

O.K., I had to duckduckgo him, but John McClane is the Bruce Willis character in Die Hard. I would save John McClane instead of John Wick for the following reasons:

  • John Wick could definitely save himself.
  • I only saw the first Die Hard, but in it, John McClane is a family man, whereas John Wick doesn’t even have a dog anymore.
  • Once when we were in Indonesia, somebody swore that my husband looked exactly like Bruce Willis and now I can’t unsee it. That makes me think Bruce Willis is even more handsome.

6. In a game of Parcheesi, who would win, Spongebob Squarepants or the Doom Slayer?

I expect Spongebob to win in the same way that Bugs Bunny would.

7. Do you feel guilty about all of my oxygen that you are breathing?

Yes. My gosh, don’t remind me!

8. What is your favorite movie?

It’s a tie between The Princess Bride and a little hidden gem called Undercover Blues.

9. If you were going to be “accidentally but on purpose” killed tomorrow, how would you spend today?

I would write long letters to each of my children. If I had extra time, I’d move on to my husband, then other close family and friends.

I might try to transfer the rights to my books so they don’t go out of print, but I don’t think that could be done in one day. If you snooze, you lose, and I guess I snost and I lost.

10. Are mirrors Friend, or Foe?

Friend, but only in the sense of “faithful are the wounds of.”

11. If you could change ONE THING about your blog, what would it be?

Every single visit to my blog would result in a book purchase and then a breathless review on Amazon GO BUY MY BOOKS PEOPLE!

Ahem. I Nominate:

I nominate seven friends (the number of perfection!) plus Bookstooge cause I want to hear his answers too. And I nominate you, Reader, if you want to do it! After all, you are breathing! Which might provide the answer to my first question!

To Answer These Questions:

  1. What is the best gift God has given you?
  2. Without sharing details you don’t want to share, how did you come out of your darkest hour/day/year?
  3. What kind of biome would you most prefer to live in (one that can be inhabited by people)?
  4. In real life, how are your social skills (and do you have any tips for me haha)?
  5. What is your favorite genre of fiction?
  6. Do you ever read nonfiction and what makes you pick it up?
  7. Tell me one nice thing about your grandparents.
  8. If you could speak any language, ancient or modern, fluently besides your native one, which one would you choose?
  9. What are your feelings on the Harry Potter series?
  10. Do you have a favorite YouTuber/podcaster? What do they talk about? Now’s your chance to promote them!
  11. When did you first seriously consider the claims of Jesus of Nazareth? If you never have, would you do me a solid and consider doing so?

A Woman Underground by Andrew Klavan

On By Jennifer Mugrage4 Comments

February, month of Posts of Stuff I Love, continues with the category “novels by Andrew Klavan” for 500. What I didn’t anticipate was the way that putting title and author together would make the author sound a bit like a serial killer. Anyway … onward!

Here is Andrew Klavan, known by some as “hot Gandalf.” (No, I’m not kidding.) Ironically, given that he is a fiction writer, my first discovery of Andrew Klavan came through his autobiography, The Great Good Thing, where he chronicled his journey from tough, noir-loving Jewish kid from Long Island to tough, Jesus-loving Jewish geezer from California. Klavan always loved the old-school tough-guy private-eye stories and aspired to write more of them. He got really good at tension, pacing, and action scenes. He’s also good at psychology, and particularly loves stories where the character isn’t sure he can trust his own mind.

Now, in his golden years and arguably at the peak of his art, Klavan is finally writing a mystery series. (His other novels have been stand-alones, plus movie scripts and a fantasy trilogy.)

The hero of this series is Cameron Winter, a former poor little rich boy and former spook whose Apollonian good looks and tweedy job as an English professor do a poor job of hiding the fact that he is still a dangerous man. Because this is by Klavan, about 30% of each novel is spent in Winter’s shrink’s office, where we find out through a series of sessions about different aspects of Winter’s tragic past. In the very first book, we heard that Winter’s childhood crush was Charlotte Schaefer, the daughter of his German-immigrant nanny. Winter has been looking back on Young Charlotte as his feminine ideal, and kind of not really growing up partly as a consequence of the Ghost of Charlotte. In this book, Winter finally has to deal with that. He has to go to the aid of the real Charlotte. But time has been flowing for her, too, of course, and Real Charlotte has her own ghosts.

(By the way, A Woman Underground is book 4 in the series, but I had to go crawling on my hands and knees to Amazon to find this out. Please, Mysterious Press, put the book numbers in a prominent place both on the spine and on the title page!)

I won’t give anything further away, but like all Klavans, the book weaves through time, giving us satisfying action in several different forms: international spy games, local mystery that is really none of Winter’s business, sentimental looks at the way things used to be … or did they? Plus a psychologically satisfying twist at the end.

You may wonder, since this is a series, do you have to read the earlier books first? No, you don’t, because Klavan does a fine job making each book work on its own. However, just in case you want to, here they are:

  • #1 When Christmas Comes
  • #2 A Strange Habit of Mind
  • #3 The House of Love and Death

So, what do you think? Do these sound like something you would like? Are you also in favor of book numbers being put on spines? Let me know in the comments!

Fantasy Cast for The Long Guest Movie

On By Jennifer Mugrage5 Comments

Above is the cover for my epic fantasy/alternate history book The Long Guest. Today, I’m going to tell you which actors I would cast for The Long Movie. I got this idea from Riddhi, who “cast” a favorite book here.

N.b.: This list is really a fantasy for a number of reasons. One reason is that many of these actors would have to be younger than they are now to play these characters, and they would have to conveniently not age until the movie was ready to be made. The character Nimri, for example, is 130 years old, but in the world of TLG that’s only middle-aged. Zillah starts the book in her early 60s, practically a spring chicken. Zillah’s children, of course, are even younger.

Also, sorry I’m only picking mostly big-name stars. One wrinkle with “casting” an imaginary movie is that I’m limited to actors I actually know about.

Nimri: the antihero

Denzel Washington has the look and the gravitas to play Nimri, an arrogant aristocrat related to the Assyrians and Egyptians (he’s “Cushite”) who is taken in by a group of strangers when he suffers paralysis.

Washington usually plays morally upright characters, but he’s a great actor who has been known to play against type, such as in the movie Training Day:

Washington would need a wig, since Nimri has long, curly hair, like the Assyrians.

Update: Ben has suggested Jason Momoa for Nimri. This is a brilliant idea. I didn’t think of Momoa, because I’ve never watched anything he’s been in. But he has the hair, and the roguish vibe.

Imagine this dude screaming at you unintelligibly to take him back to the Tower.

Zillah: the wise matriarch

Widowed at the beginning of the story, Zillah acts as the conscience of her family as they navigate the postapocalyptic chaos. It is she, in fact, who insists they save the life of Nimri, even though he is paraplegic, doesn’t speak their language, and appears to hate them.

Zillah and her family are “Japhethites,” which in my book means they belong to the group that became the ancestors of both Europeans and Asians. They can look like modern-day Europeans, Central or East Asians, or (later) Native Americans. Zillah has medium-fair skin and straight black hair so long that anyone playing her would need a wig.

Any of these ladies could play Zillah:

Sandra Oh

Maura Tierney

Mariska Hargitay. She starred in Law and Order: Special Victims Unit for so many years that I’m sure playing Zillah would actually seem like a nice break by comparison.

Golgal: Zillah’s dead husband

Golgal is killed right before the story opens, but if we needed to portray him in flashbacks, he could be played by Liam Neeson sporting long black hair and a long black beard. And dark contacts.

Enmer: the hyper-responsible son

With his father dead, it’s up to Enmer to get his family out of the riots in the city of Babel. Enmer never really gets over the apocalypse, but he does his best throughout the rest of the book, guided by Zillah.

Kiowa Gordon is an American Indian (Hualapai) actor who played Jim Chee, among other roles. This tense, tragic look on his face is perfect for Enmer.

Ninshi: Enmer’s uptight wife

Lucy Liu has exactly the take-no-nonsense face that Ninshi is usually sporting.

Endu: the cocky young prince

Endu, the second son of Zillah and Golgal, is handsome and cocky. He doesn’t mind letting Enmer lead the group of refugees, but he’d like to have his own kingdom some day.

I only ever saw Johnathan Schaech in That Thing You Do, and never again. But the character he played in that movie was pretty close to Endu’s.

Endu could also be played by a much younger Robert Downey Junior, or by a much younger:

Michael Greyeyes.

Endu is quite a bit darker complected than all these guys, though.

Sari: Endu’s mousy wife

Late in the book, Endu marries a sweet, shy widow who he thinks should be really glad to get him.

I’ve always thought Grace Dove would do a fantastic job as Sari.

Sut: the sunny third child

Sut doesn’t make it very far in the book, but he could be played by either of these handsome young fellers.

Timothee Chalamet

Frank Dillane

Ninna: the little sister

Ninna is only sixteen when the apocalypse happens. She remains a player in the family story throughout the entire trilogy.

Mindy Kaling looks exactly like I picture Ninna (and, in fact, her daughter Magya): dark, pretty, short, sweet, super feminine.

Hur: the slave turned brother

Golgal acquired Hur as a slave when Hur was fourteen. Hur’s father had gotten into debt, and the family was being sold off to pay it. Hur is the same age as Enmer (31) when The Long Guest opens. He is a very capable person, and it doesn’t take him long to insist to Enmer that he be given his freedom and made one of the family, or he will take his skills elsewhere.

Hur is the only member of the initial cast who does not have black hair.

Jeremy Renner looks more or less as I have always pictured Hur. In Wind River, he plays a character who is similar to Hur, as well.

You May Now Complain

Okay, that’s it! If you have actually read The Long Guest, you may have found this post enjoyable (or, perhaps, repulsive). If you haven’t read it yet, I trust that my casting choices have not ruined the mental images you will develop while reading it.

And yes, The Long Guest could be cast almost entirely with American Indian actors, Korean actors, or Bollywood actors. I’m just not knowledgeable enough about the industrie(s) to assemble such a cast in a blog post.

Readalong with Bookstooge: Love Saves the Day

On By Jennifer Mugrage5 Comments

My faithful fellow blogger, Bookstooge, is doing a readalong of a book someone, possibly as a prank, recommended to him: Love Saves the Day by Barbara Cartland. I went so far as to order this book from Amazon in order to participate. I don’t usually read in the romance genre, but I have read a few, and I don’t despise the genre or its readers or anything like that.

I waited to post this until after Bookstooge’s first reaction post went up on Friday, but I am composing my reaction before I see his.

First, let’s talk about this cover, eh? The word “terrifying” comes to mind. The guy looks more like Dracula – or a 60-year-old uncle- than like a romantic hero. Note that he is grasping the heroine by the upper arms. She, for her part, appears to be very concerned and trying to get away. I don’t mind the fact that this is impressionistically rendered – I don’t even completely mind that her hair is not, as it is described in the book, curly — but the emotional tone of this cover does not match the promised content.

I am, as of this posting, almost all the way through Chapter 4 because I mistakenly remembered that Bookstooge was going to be writing about chapters 1 – 6 in his first post. My impression so far: the plot is a very capable romance plot. The heroine is young, brave, idealistic; the hero is a little older, world-weary, etc.; there’s a rival romantic hero in the picture who is young, blond, and charming; financial circumstances are forcing the couple into co-operation they wouldn’t otherwise undertake. There’s even a bitter, scheming housekeeper a la Rebecca. I can’t see any big holes in the plot.

My first impression of the wordsmithing is that this is a first draft.

There are a ton of comma splices. There is head-hopping. (Though that may be intentional; sometimes it’s hard to tell head-hopping from an omniscient narrator. I omnish, myself.) The tone of the dialog is slightly inconsistent. It’s as if Cartland wants this to be an Edwardian-era novel, like Austen, or even earlier, but it’s set in 1903, and sometimes it comes off as if the characters are pretending to be from an earlier era. I can’t tell whether clothes, technology, and so forth, contain any anachronisms. The clothes are fairly generically described, but there are “omnibuses.” (Edit: I just looked it up, and oops! Edwardian is 1901 – 1910. So, spot on. So, the language sounds like it’s going for … Victorian? But obviously I’m not very savvy about this, so perhaps her language is also period accurate.)

Anyway, after noticing that this read like a first draft, I then went back to the introduction (which, like a good fiction reader, I had skipped), and, lo and behold …. it is a first draft.

Dame Barbara Cartland[‘s] most amazing literary feat was to double her output from 10 books a year to over 20 books a year when she was 77 to meet the huge demand.

She went on writing continuously at this rate for 20 years and wrote her very last book at the age of 97, thus completing an incredible 400 books between the ages of 77 and 97.

Her publishers finally could not keep up with this phenomenal output, so at her death in 2000 she left behind an amazing 160 unpublished manuscripts, something that no other author has ever achieved.

Barbara’s son, Ian McCorquodale, together with his daughter Iona, felt that it was their sacred duty to publish all these titles for Barbara’s millions of admirers all over the world who so love her wonderful romances.

So in 2004 they started publishing the 160 brand new Barbara Cartlands as the The Barbara Cartland Pink Collection, as Barbara’s favourite colour was always pink — and yet more pink!

The Barbara Cartland Pink collection is published monthly exclusively by Barbaracartland.com and the books are numbered in sequence from 1 to 160.

–the introduction

Barbara Cartland was cranking out about one novel every two weeks for twenty years. I’m not even mad, I’m impressed. And I am now a little bit jealous of her. Imagine having such high demand for your books that you can just dash off all your ideas and the publisher will publish them as fast as they can.

Also, I’m tickled. That selection above gets funnier every time I read it. I mean, it sounds made-up, like something from a Bertie Wooster novel. Even the names of Barbara’s son and granddaughter sound like characters from her books. And the fact that they are calling it the pink collection because that was her favorite color … the fact that she loved pink so much … the fact that her author photo looks like this:

Now that I think about, the section above might be my favorite part of the book. The romance between Tiana and Richard is going to have to get awfully good in order to compete with Cartland herself.

Reminder: Purchase The Scattering Trilogy for your Bookworm Loved Ones for Christmas

On By Jennifer MugrageLeave a comment

But don’t take my word for it!

Reviews of The Long Guest

On onlinebookclub

On Amazon

Reviews of The Strange Land

Didn’t like the abuse scenes: https://forums.onlinebookclub.org/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=535834 ,

Didn’t like the tribal rituals scenes: https://forums.onlinebookclub.org/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=552727

Liked the bear scene: https://forums.onlinebookclub.org/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=519407

Liked the whole thing: https://forums.onlinebookclub.org/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=563318 , https://forums.onlinebookclub.org/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=523075

Reviews of The Great Snake

Wanted more relationship development: https://forums.onlinebookclub.org/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=521141

Wanted more cowbell snake: https://forums.onlinebookclub.org/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=533607

“I felt her pain, her joy, and everything in between”: https://forums.onlinebookclub.org/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=545809

New Review of The Great Snake

On By Jennifer Mugrage3 Comments

https://forums.onlinebookclub.org/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=521141

This review is through the Online Book Club, a book discussion site where volunteers review books in exchange for a free copy or, sometimes, a small fee. As an author, I had purchased a batch of reviews. They are done by book lovers who select the books to review based on whether it sounds like something that would interest them. They agree to give an honest review.

I appreciate this review by Li Zapata. She has picked up on how The Great Snake is the story of not just one person, but of a community and how they develop. (This is true of the entire trilogy, actually. Ensemble cast.) The weaknesses she found in the book have been noted by others as well, so I can’t fault her there.

Check out her review, my book, and onlinebookclub.