I think I might have enjoyed Fragments by Dan Wells even more than the first book in the series, Partials. But I'm not sure that I know why. I suspect it's because Wells is more familiar/comfortable with his characters and also we seem to get inside more characters' heads in this book, and there's a lot of action too. While the first book was setting up the world and the political and military problems, this book starts looking for real solutions and the characters get themselves into more and more hot water (and acid rain) in the process.

Kira is seeking a solution to RM and the expiration date, and Sam is supporting her in her endeavors even though she seems to be making lots of mistakes. Marcus is desperately trying to keep the peace back at East Meadow while the partials close in on what's left of the humans. There's a lot of tension as well as intricate plot and character development here. We also get to see a lot more of the post-apocalyptic world, and we start to find out what caused the "break" and who's left alive who might have some of the answers. Of course, the answers so far are all morally ambiguous so the book raises some very interesting questions about when it's justified to sacrifice some lives to save many.

While this is a post-apocalyptic action sci-fi series, the writing style is more quiet and thoughtful than some other series in a similar vein and I do enjoy it, although sometimes I feel that the pace lags or that the information being conveyed by the characters is a little repetitive. I have listened to this series so far on audiobook and the narrator (Julia Whelan) is wonderful, really getting the sense of the different characters' voices across extremely effectively. This is no mean feat considering it's not always easy for a woman to make her voice come across in the character of a bunch of military men. So I highly recommend the audio version to those who like audiobooks. I'm eagerly awaiting the next installment of this series.

This week I am thrilled to present my first interview with a real live (or possibly cloned) horror/sci-fi author, Geoffrey Girard. Not only does Geoffrey write in this highly emotionally charged genre, but he also engaged in the unusual publishing experiment of releasing two companion books on the same day telling the tale of a government experiment to clone serial killers from different points of view. Project Cain is a YA first person account of the story from the perspective of a teen boy (Jeff Jacobson) who is one of the clones, while Cain's Blood is an adult-focused story told in multiple third person points of view. Along with the interview, Geoffrey offered to give away an autographed copy of each of the books. (Contest details at the end of the interview.)

When I asked Geoffrey to share his experiences writing the duology, here's what he had to say ...

KC: My first question has to be how you came up with the idea of writing companion books aimed at different market sectors – Project Cain aimed at the YA audience and Cain’s Blood aimed at a more adult audience. Many authors have written companion books from different characters’ perspectives, but I’m not aware of any other authors who have aimed the companion books at different market segments.

GG: I sent a book written for teens about cloned serial killers to my future agents who liked the writing/story but thought it would work better as a traditional adult thriller. I rewrote as that and they then took me on as a client. In the same call, my agents asked if I was still interested in writing something for young-adult readers (which I was) and specifically would I (could I) do a first-person telling from the POV of Jeff Jacobson, the teenage clone of Jeffrey Dahmer. I agreed and they started approaching publishers big enough to handle both markets. Ultimately, two houses in Simon & Schuster signed on. There are many authors writing for both markets, but to have both books come out on the exact same day based on the exact same story was quite new. If a big name author had done it, it would have been a bigger deal. But no complaints. It, for sure, got some extra attention for a first-time novelist. At the end of the day, “adult” and “young-adult” just help booksellers know where to place the merchandise. There are teens who loved CAIN’S BLOOD and adults who loved PROJECT CAIN. It all depends on the kind of book you’re in the mood for that week.

 KC: Project Cain is written in the first person from teen narrator Jeff Jacobson’s perspective, while Cain’s Blood is written in a shifting third person voice so that the reader can get a much broader sense of the world around the characters. What were the challenges of writing in the first person versus the shifting third person? 

GG: Third person was easy. I’ve written and sold sixty-plus short stories in the last ten years and almost all have been third person. So, I was pretty comfortable with the various options there. Plus, I was just finishing up an MA in Creative Writing, and so had even more confidence to tackle different POVs. For each scene, I just had to decide which character (third-person limited) would provide the most interesting take of that scene. I saw a recent review where the happy reviewer commented on (and listed!) all the viewpoints I’d used. I actually hadn’t even thought of it until seeing that review. CAIN’S BLOOD (the “adult” one) really does cover everyone. 

PROJECT CAIN, told entirely from the POV of Jeff Jacobson (the teen clone of Jeffrey Dahmer) was new for me. I’ve done some first-person POV but nothing longer than a few thousand words. This book is 90k. My agents and I agreed we’d only try this additional teen novel IF I could bring a new voice to the table; do something different. It was a great chance to try something really distinctive with this second book, and that was exciting as a writer. Fortunately, Simon & Schuster was feeling equally creative.

Jeff Jacobson is NOT me or any form of me, so it took some time to get into his head for the telling. I spent a lot of time re-researching Jeffrey Dahmer to imagine/feel what Dahmer might have been like in a different environment/time. I spent months listening to actual Dahmer interviews, and reading what others said about how he acted and spoke. (I’ve since met several people who knew Dahmer personally and confirmed my take on his “voice.”) I wanted the Jeff in PROJECT CAIN to sound like that, as he has the physiological mind of a sociopath. He reacts to and sees the world differently than most of us. The result: there are readers who love the voice and Jeff, and readers who hate it and me. But it’s Jeff’s true voice, so that’s a chance I was willing to take.

An easy example: the no-quotation-marks thing. That’s not how most fiction is presented and about 50 pages into the manuscript, I was like: “Oh, God… Am I gonna have to do this the whole damn book? This is so annoying!” But, PROJECT CAIN is meant as a journal written by Jeff a couple months after the incidents of the story. I simply don’t believe he’d use quotation marks in such a journal and this was “his” book, not mine. My book is CAIN’S BLOOD. I’d often send my teen editor emails saying, “Sorry. I know this is a weird book.”

KC:  The books center on horrific government experiments involving the cloning of subjects from the DNA of infamous serial killers. What gave you the idea to focus your books on this topic? What were the challenges in writing what is largely a horror story from the YA perspective when you tackled Project Cain? Was it difficult to make such a gruesome story accessible to younger readers?

GG: I teach high school English and one day my students somehow got on the topic of serial killers. Next thing I knew, we were looking up various facts online and having an interesting discussion about Who, and How and Why. They were super interested but still had a lot to learn. Perfect! It made me want to write a sort of  “Intro to Serial Killers” novel, one that would pull together all the essential facts, lore and real-life infamous characters; something my own students could read. I went home that same day and dusted off an old novella about cloned serial killers I’d written for a magazine years before. I took that story and rewrote it for teens, adding more facts, focus on the teen characters, etc. That eventually became CAIN’S BLOOD. Then I started PROJECT CAIN from scratch based on the conversations with my agents.  

PROJECT CAIN isn’t really that gruesome as the violence is almost entirely “off screen.” The subject matter is terrible and there are certainly enough bread crumbs dropped for those young readers who feel ready to follow. But it was written as an “Intro” to serial killers. If some kid wants to learn more, there are libraries and Google. Have at it. The narrator of PROJECT CAIN, Jeff Jacobson, has no interest in the “gory details.” On the very first page, he warns the reader, I ain’t getting into any of that here; You’ll have to look up that stuff yourself.  As soon as I wrote that line, I knew I was okay with the whole book. My narrator wouldn’t allow me to get gratuitously violent or morbid.

KC: The books also cover a number of other conspiracy theories and paint the government-sponsored scientists in a rather unflattering light. Many of the conspiracy theories (if that’s the right term) appear to be based on detailed research. How did you go about researching the science? How much of it is “real” and how much did you make up for the purposes of the plot?

GG: “Cloned serial killers” is made up. Everything else are legit experiments, history and allegations. These books were supposed to be about cloning and serial killers. Period. All the government conspiracy stuff and criticism of military science only came after I started the research. I had no idea The United States government had done so many terrible things in the name of national defense and weapons research. I knew we spent a lot on weapons, but I didn’t know it was this much. I knew we’d done some questionable experiments in the past, I didn’t know how much damage we’d done and how far the government had gone to cover them up. I’d started down that rabbit hole and soon came to just appalling things America has done to explore various types of weapons. The trillions spent, most in black budgets none of us can ever know about. The apologies for secret testing done for fifty years on everyone from mental patients and prisoners to children and entire U.S. cities. Murders that have been committed, and admitted to, in our name. The U.S. government itself has publicly apologized and made huge payments to express regret for crimes against humanity committed decades ago. There is no reason to suspect that similar discoveries and apologies won’t be made decades from now. The fun for an author is imagining what those discoveries may be. The fear of a citizen is that some of these imaginings prove true. 

The narrator of PROJECT CAIN constantly invites the reader to do more research, to look into it for yourself. The teacher in me, and the original goal of the teen book, was to encourage more self-driven research and discovery.

KC: Several of your early reviewers compared your work to Michael Crichton and Stephen King. Who are some of your favorite writers in the science fiction/horror/suspense genres? 

GG: Crichton had a gift for making technology and history approachable, and I certainly aim for that. I’m definitely more a typical example of the generation nurtured on King. When The Shining came out, I was too young to see the Kubrick film, and so convinced my mom to let me buy the book at the supermarket. That day certainly was a defining moment for me as King became the cornerstone of my formative reading. The excellent horror notwithstanding, King clearly loved the craft of writing, he loved “being a writer” and that meant a whole lot to a budding English major and writer. I’d read his intros and afterwards as closely as his tales, looking for insight into Who else to read and How to write, etc. King led me directly to folk like Lovecraft, Bradbury, Matheson, Jackson, Beaumont, and Straub. Clive Barker then opened up horror, I think, the way the Beatles opened up pop music. I think Douglas Clegg is a terrific writer; most of those Leisure Books guys took their craft very seriously. Suspense? I’ll go from a PD James or Ross Thomas binge to my beloved Spenser for Hire books. William Goldman (Marathon Man, Magic, Stepford Wives) is a virtuoso novelist; unfortunately also a brilliant screenwriter pulled away too often by Hollywood. SF? Dune was a biggie for me. Everything by Edgar Rice Burroughs as a kid. I don’t particularly like the way William Gibson writes (the cadence/poetry) BUT I have them all and often re-read for his ideas and creativity. Neal Stephenson just makes me wanna give up and quit writing. I was a comic book nut as a kid/teen so an absurd amount of influence from writers/artists like Mike Grell, John Byrne, and Frank Miller.

KC:  What are you reading now? AND/OR What are you working on next?

GG: I’ve been taking a break from fiction. I recently finished a masters in English and had to read, like, 200 classic and modern books of fiction and creative nonfiction during those three years. Mostly all amazing reads but I’m kinda fictioned out right now, and still need a break. I’ve been picking at (re-reading) Koko (Straub) and Giovanni’s Room (Baldwin) to get my fiction fix, but that’s more meditative than anything.  I’m mostly on a non-fiction binge, researching for my next projects. Something for teens related to 9/11 and something for adults connected to eugenics. Like the CAIN books, you can expect a lot of history mixed in with the dark stuff.


Thanks for sharing your insights, Geoffrey. Now, on with the contest ...

Geoffrey will send an autographed copy of one of each of his books (Project Cain or Cain's Blood) to two randomly chosen commenters on this blog post, who answer the following question:

Who would you most (or least) like to see cloned, and why?

And if you have a preference as to which book you would like to receive should you be a contest winner, feel free to state it in your comment.

The winner will be chosen by the following highly scientific method.

I will print out all the comments and toss them into a hat. I will then ask one of my children to randomly pick the two winners. Geoffrey or I will contact each winner to arrange shipment of the relevant book. If the two winners both want the same book, I will leave it to Geoffrey's discretion (and available stocks) to see if he can accommodate both winners with the same book.

The contest will be open until midnight Eastern Time on May 4, 2014. So make sure you comment by then to be in the draw. Please make sure you include an email address when you post your comment so we can contact you to arrange shipping. Email addresses will NOT be made public. Contest is open to readers within and outside the United States, so anyone out there in the wider world, feel free to enter.

Thanks for the interview and for the contest, Geofrrey. Let the comments roll ...

The winners of last week's contests are ....

[imagine a DRUM ROLL here!]

Authors in Bloom Blog Hop winners:

Savannah Miller
Elise-Maria Barton
Nancy Arny Pi-Sunyer

Each of these lovely readers won a copy of one of my e-novellas (of their choice).

"The Tell-Tail Heart" Book Giveaway (winner chosen by author Monica Shaughnessy)

Ellen Leventhal

CONGRATULATIONS to all, and thanks for visiting the blog.

This week I'm launching an exciting new contest: an autographed book giveaway of a copy of each of Geoffrey Girard's books: Cain's Blood and Project Cain. More details to come along with thrilling author interview with Geoffrey Girard.

I suppose if I were pitching Undercurrent by Paul Blackwell, I would say something like Back to the Future meets Sliders (if anyone remembers that old T.V. show). It's Y.A. and it's sci-fi, but there are no vampires, werewolves, angels or love triangles. I hope that's not giving too much away. This is a case of alternate worlds that arises when the main character (Callum) jumps - or falls, he can't remember - over a waterfall in his small town and, after waking from a coma, he finds himself in an alternate reality where he's the same but everything around him is different. Sounds like Sliders, huh? Or am I dating myself too much with that reference?

It's a fast-paced easy book to read and can easily be consumed in one sitting. There's nothing too gory or too racy on the page so it is appropriate for readers of a wide age group. However, it won't appeal to everyone because it pretty much is alternate worlds hard core quantum physics sci-fi stuff and not your typical Y.A. story. It's very well written and it's easy to sympathize with Callum's plight. He finds himself the terror of his local high school and a sports star when in his real life he's something of a nerd. While the story is generally fast-paced, I found the balance of the plot a little "off" in the sense that the story takes a good long while to get going, focusing most of its approximately 300 pages on the differences between the worlds, and only gets to the meat of the problem (i.e. how Callum comes to be where he is) at the very end of the story. So the end was a little unsatisfying for me in terms of balance, although in terms of tying up loose ends, Blackwell does an excellent job.

While the story has a male protagonist and is kinda "boy focused" in terms of fights, sports etc, I'm pretty sure it would appeal to female readers too. Hey I'm a girl and I liked it. So if you're looking for something a little different in the Y.A. sci-fi realm, this isn't a bad option for a change from all those vampires, werewolves and angels ...

Today I'm delighted to bring you an interview with Jan Krause Greene, author of the unusual environmentalist sci-fi novel, I Call Myself Earth Girl. Here's what Jan had to say when I asked her some searching questions about her work ...


KC: I Call Myself Earth Girl has a rather unusual plot in that it combines science fiction with environmentalism and issues relating to war, religion and humanity generally. How did you come up with the plot?  

JKG: I wrote the first Earth Girl segment about 2 years before the rest of the book. After I wrote it, I wasn't sure how to build a whole novel from it. But then one day it occurred to me that the first Earth Girl segment could be a dream that revealed something important to another character. It was a very vague idea, but as soon as I decided that Gloria was pregnant, the rest of it just started coming to me. I didn't really know where I was going with it, but I knew I had a few ideas that I wanted to incorporate and that is where the environment and war come it. 

KC: You deal with some rather brutal issues in the book like violence against women in particular. Was it difficult to write passages about violence and the human capacity for inhumanity in a way that would still be accessible to readers?

JKG: Yes, that was a challenge because I wanted to show the violence in a way that affected the reader emotionally without making them so upset that they would not want to keep reading. Plus, I really did not want it to be gratuitous violence. I wanted the violent scenes to make a point about how desperate circumstances, including war, can make good people treat others in a way they would not ever imagine. In the sequel, I examine this premise more fully, showing how a person who is good to his/her own family and community can be truly cruel to those perceived as enemy, or perceived as a threat to survival.

KC: The lead character, Gloria, goes through some very difficult challenges throughout the book, including giving birth to a strange "alien" daughter later in life while her older daughter is facing a pregnancy of her own. While she often despairs and wonders how to deal with a situation, she always pulls through with grace and dignity. Was she a difficult character to write? What were some of the main challenges for you as a writer in dealing with her character's journey?

JKG: To be honest, Gloria was the easiest character for me to write. The old cliche about the character taking over and determining what happens was true for Gloria. Whenever I was writing about Gloria it flowed very easily. I was extremely comfortable with her and, although, I may not have made the same choices she makes, I understood her reasons for making them.

KC: Your vision of the future in this story is somewhat bleak, yet tinged with hope that we can do better as a human race. Does this mirror your own feelings about the future? If so, in what ways?

JKG: It absolutely mirrors my feelings. I think the future will be very bleak if we don't transition to a different way of living. I really believe that we need to move away from war as a way to solve conflict between and among countries. Not only does war destroy families, communities, and whole societies, it also harms the earth and the earth has almost reached its breaking point for a variety of complicated reasons, most of which trace back to human activities.  BUT, I also believe that humans can reverse these trends. I believe that those of us who are on earth now were chosen by God, or the universe, or random chance to transition humanity to a new way of living in harmony with nature and with each other. More importantly, I think we are starting to do this. I see very hopeful signs with the global peace movements and the global environmental movements. People from all over the world are collaborating with each other. I think that this is the promise of the future and I am very inspired by it. 

KC: Who are some of your favorite writers? What have been the biggest influences on your own writing so far?

JKG: It is easier for me to name favorite books than favorite writers, but I don't think I have ever read anything by John Steinbeck or Mark Twain that I did not like. My favorite book is still To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. The structure of the story is perfect. More recently - The Secret Life of Bees, The Lovely Bones, I Know This Much is True, Turtle Moon, and in the last few years, Flight Behavior, Ten Thousand Saints. Right now I am reading and enjoying Alice Hoffman's new novel, The Museum of Extraordinary Things. 
I think I am more inspired by observing what is going on in the world - the big picture, than I am by any particular writer, but I think that Alice Hoffman has probably influenced me more than any other writer.

Thanks for being with us today and sharing your thoughts on writing, Jan!

I couldn't resist opening up Dreams of Gods and Monsters as soon as I received it -  had pre-ordered it on Amazon. And once I opened it, I couldn't put it down even though it's over 600 pages long. That's over 600 pages of Laini Taylor at her best. This book is a great accomplishment to round out the trilogy. Not only does Taylor keep raising the stakes for Akiva and Karou (as well as the wonderfully well developed cast of supporting characters), but she also amazingly introduces new characters who are equally compelling and bring exponential layers of depth to the plot.

Every time it seems that Akiva and Karou are finally going to get what they want - a simple life together - the world(s) spin(s) out of control again. They struggle with finding the motivation to keep going when the challenges they face grow ever more serious. Akiva faces the future with and without Karou and has to learn what she wants OF him and what she wants FOR him before they can have any hope at any semblance of a future together.

The other thing that Taylor manages so masterfully is interweaving incredibly complex plot threads so they become relatively easy for the reader to follow. This is world-building and plot development at its best. She juggles a set of worlds and a huge cast of characters each with their own foibles and goals and does so with great aplomb. I read a lot of fantasy and often get lost in the plot - literally - but never with Taylor's work. She also occasionally tells aspects of a scene from different characters' perspectives so the reader obtains a great depth of understanding of the fulness of the world and the story.

It's hard to go into more detail without giving away important plot twists. But I continue to love Mik and Zuse and my heart always breaks for the noble and innocent Ziri who gives of his all to save a world gone mad. There is a lengthy epilogue in this book that rounds out the story nicely, but suggests there are more adventures in store for the characters, even though this is the end of the trilogy. I'd be happy if Taylor left it here, but if she wanted to write more short stories and set them in the future of this universe of characters and problems I'd definitely pick them up and read them.

Brava, Laini Taylor, for bringing this series to a magnificent conclusion.

So I'm going out on a limb here with the authors in bloom blog hop because I'm not great at recipes or gardening! Believe it or not, my hubby and kids like all those "spring" things better than I do. I'd rather sit in a cozy chair and read cozies ...

The recipe tip here comes from my six year old daughter and is a bit of a cheat. After buying an "M & Ms" cookbook at the Scholastic book fair recently, she has come to the conclusion that ALL recipes can be improved with M & Ms. And her three year old sister calls them "nummy nums" (think about it folks, or at least say it out loud and you'll see what I mean). So try baking your standard cake or cookie and adding a bunch of M & Ms on top and see if it doesn't improve on the original recipe.

For my own personal giveaway, I'm offering a copy of each of my romance e-novellas: Destiny, Dear John, and Ivory Tower. To be eligible for these books, please leave a comment below including a gardening or cooking tip and make sure you include your email address so if you win a prize I can email the e-book to you. Email addresses will not be made public. I will choose the prize winners by random draw. Contest closes on April 16, 2014.

By leaving a comment with email address you will also be eligible for the Blog Hop Grand Prizes ...

Authors in Bloom Prizes Grand Prize:

A Kindle or Nook e-reader ($200 value) +$25 gift card (US only)

Second Prize: $25 e-reader gift card (international)

Author Prizes will vary. Note that only visitors who leave comments at each and every stop on the tour will be eligible for the Grand Prizes and Second Prize. Winners will be posted on the first (Dianne Venetta) and last (A Cozy Reader’s Corner) stops on the tour.

Good luck to all of you! I hope you discover some fantastic new authors along the way!

Link to list of authors here.

The beginning of spring means it's time for another book giveaway on the blog. This month, I'm delighted to be able to offer readers a free copy of Monica Shaughnessy's The Tell-Tail Heart, the first in a series of cat cozies based on the mysteries of Edgar Allen Poe, and featuring Poe's cat, Catterina. The book is currently available on Amazon, but one lucky blog reader could win a free copy from the author if they answer the contest question below.

Here's a little about the book ...
==================

Philadelphia, 1842: Poe's cat, Cattarina, becomes embroiled in a killer's affairs when she finds a clue to the crime: a glass eye. It's only when her beloved "Eddie" takes an interest, however, that she decides to hunt down the madman. Her dangerous expedition takes her from creepy Eastern State Penitentiary to Rittenhouse Square where she runs into a gang of feral cats intent on stopping her. But new problems arise faster than she can solve them.

As the mystery pulls Cattarina deeper into trouble, even Eddie becomes the target of suspicion. Yet she cannot give up the chase. Both her reputation as a huntress and her friend's happiness are at stake. For if she succeeds in catching the Glass Eye Killer, the missing pieces of Eddie's unfinished story will fall into place, and the Poe household will once again experience peace. At the story's pulse-pounding conclusion, Poe gets the inspiration he needs from his feline muse, enough to finish The Tell-Tale Heart.

Monica Shaughnessy, a fan of Poe's work (and cats!), conducted a ton of research into the life and times of Poe and Catterina to add historical accuracy, even though the book is told through the eyes of a cat! Readers who enjoy Poe, mysteries, and cat cozies are bound to love this book.

Monica will send a copy of The Tell-Tail Heart to a randomly chosen commenter on this blog post, who answers the following question:

In the book, Catterina brings home a glass eye. What is the strangest item your pet has ever brought home?

The winner will be chosen by the following highly scientific method.

Monica will print out all the comments and toss them into a hat. She will then pick one at random as the winner. The contest will be open until midnight Eastern Time on April 20, 2014. So make sure you comment before then to be included in the draw. Please make sure you include an email address when you post your comment so Monica can email you the book. Email addresses will NOT be made public. Contest is open to readers within and outside the United States.

If I had to pitch Immortal City, the first in a new(ish) YA angel trilogy by Scott Speer, I'd probably say "City of Angels meets L.A Confidential". The book (and I presume the rest of the trilogy - I haven't read the second book and the third isn't out yet) is very "L.A.". It's a "what if" alternate world where angels openly save humans from death for money. It's kind of an angelic racket. There are unexplained angel deaths and a traditional L.A. gumshoe type has to try and solve them, even though he gets little to no help, trust or support from the angels or the higher-ups in his department.

There's a love story of course between an angel and a human. I believe it becomes a love triangle in book 2, Natural Born Angel. There are actually hints of a love triangle in this book, but it's not powerfully developed. Heroine (human) Maddy isn't particularly interested in angels and the paparazzi that surround them, and her Uncle Kevin (with whom she lives after the deaths of her parents) really dislikes them. But of course she comes across the most famous teen angel in the city - Jackson Godspeed - and sparks fly. Jacks is used to getting everything he wants whenever he wants it, and being the product of universal teen girl adoration. He doesn't know what to make of a girl who sees him for who he is, and isn't blinded by the celebrity haze surrounding him.

The story is funny and original, and a truly unique take on the angel craze that has swamped YA literature in recent years. The love story aspects are a little sterile - it's hard to buy the romance (at least it was for me) because the characters, even the main ones, are kind of superficial and two dimensional, but that's kind of the point of the story and I assume we get a deeper insight into all the characters in the next book. It's a fun engaging read overall and a nice mix of genres - romance, action, detective story etc.