Blog – Kit Campbell Books

Promo: The Fallenwood Chronicles by Leslie D. Soule

Good morning, squiders! I’ve got a series for you today which involves the classic fantasy trope of a normal person accidentally ending up in a fantasy world! Leslie’s also included a guest post for beginning writers.

Blurb:

The Fallenwood Chronicles is the ongoing story of Ash Kensington, a young woman who finds herself transported into a fantasy world, where she must take up arms in a battle of Good vs. Evil, against the Dark Lord Malegaunt. Tragedy strikes her life in the real world, but she finds friends in Fallenwood, like her mentor Will Everett, a talking cat named Greymalkin, and a court jester named Terces. Working together, they battle against the odds as Ash faces attacks from the world and from within. Eventually Ash finds the strength within herself, to attempt the fight against Malegaunt, against overwhelming odds, come what may

Excerpt:

Her heart raced and she breathed slowly, trying to calm her frazzled nerves. Glancing around, she wondered how far off the road she’d wandered. She knew it had been midday when she’d started running, and now looking up into the star-filled sky, it had to be late into the night. A rush of air greeted her the moment she reached this strange part of the forest, before her eyes had temporarily forsaken her. The wind whipped around her from all sides. She backed away from where she stood, and the wind felt like it was whooshing up from a precipice. Ashley paused to allow her eyes to adjust to the dark. When her sight returned, she realized that she was standing nowhere near a cliff—it was just an unfamiliar area of forest. Suddenly, a ball of fire hurtled overhead in an arc toward her. Her mind screamed at her to run, but she found that her legs wouldn’t move. The flaming orb continued its descent, burrowing itself into the soft ground only inches away from Ashley’s boots. Two men rushed toward her, arguing all the while as Ashley stood immobilized. Her bones were in revolt. Her brain scrambled for an alias to give out to the men if they asked, but she could only come up with Ash, because she was looking at the little pile of soot at her boots. “Deflected,” the man in the lead announced.

Guest post:

Advice For New Writers

So when I first set about trying to get my work published, one of the resources that was suggested to me, was/is a volume known as the Writer’s Market. This book is published every year, and contains information on the current publishers who are looking for new material, their requirements, and submission guidelines. Sometimes, you can find a copy of the Writer’s Market in your local library if you’re short on cash, or at a bookstore, where you can sit down and copy down the information on paper or take some snapshots with your phone.

A free resource that I’ve found, that’s great for submitting items like short stories in particular, is a site called Submittable. It’s free to start an account, and you can find places to submit to. Some publications on Submittable do require a fee of a few dollars, to keep them going. It’s fun to see which items get accepted via Submittable, and you may be able to find some publications that you really like, there, that you might not have found otherwise. For example, the Submittable platform is how I found Nat 1 publishing, which has published several of my works.

Also, it may be helpful to get yourself a tool for overcoming that pesky thing called writer’s block. For that, I’ve found that this thing called the Writer’s Toolbox – find it HERE on Amazon – does the job of combatting writer’s block, nicely.

And the last bit of advice I’d give to a new writer is to hold onto as much of your writing as possible and not throw things away, even if you think they’re terrible, because you can always take a piece you’ve written and re-work it later. You’ll be glad you held onto your stuff, years down the road.

Author Bio:

Leslie D. Soule received her M.A. in English from National University. She is a scholar, artist, citizen journalist, and martial artist. She has been an established writer for a decade, and has novels published by Melange Books, Terror House Press, Gypsy Shadow Publishing, and Nat 1 Publishing. The Fallenwood Chronicles is her 4-book fantasy series and features the novels Fallenwood, Forgetting Fallenwood, Betrayer, and Retribution.

Twitter handle: @Fallenwood1

Amazon:

Book One
Book Two
Book Three
Book Four

a Rafflecopter giveaway

WriYe and Author Admiration

Good afternoon, squiders! Hope your week is going well! I finished a new chapter on my edit and the next chapter is rolling along, so I’m feeling pretty good.

WriYe’s April Blog prompt is: What author do you admire the most? Why?

This is an interesting question. What do we consider admiration?

I have authors that I’ll pick up any new book they put out: Donna Andrews, whenever she puts out a new Meg Langslow mystery (normally twice a year). Stuart Turton. TJ Klune.

There’s authors who put out a ton of books, like Lindsay Buroker. Authors who self-published but got picked up by a Big 5 publisher and became bestsellers, like Andy Weir or Travis Baldree.

Then there’s authors who were such powerhouses that we keep reading them all these years later, like Agatha Christie or Jane Austen. Or authors who have the ability to create a world so fantastically real that you understand its rules even though they’re all made-up, like Tolkien.

Each of these authors has skills that I admire. They have the ability to create immersive stories that call you back time and time again, or they weave plot twists that you never see coming, or they have a work ethic that I would kill for half of.

How do you pick just one? How do you look at all the stories out there, all the authors, and say, Yes, this is the one. This is my favorite.

I certainly can’t.

I tend to keep a Top 5 list of my favorite books, which goes through permutations. It’s typically The Phantom Tollboth (Norton Juster), Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen), The Return of the King (JRR Tolkien), Agnes and the Hitman (Jennifer Crusie/Bob Mayer), and then the fifth one varies. Maybe The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (Stuart Turton) right now. Truly impressive plotting on that one.

But yeah–author I must admire? It really depends on the context, and how I’m feeling, and what books I’ve read recently.

And having written several novels myself–kudos to everyone who gets one done and out into the world. It’s not an easy task.

See you next week, squiders!

Game On (Part 2)

Hey ho, everybody! I set a video game goal for the year, to make it through my large catalogue of unplayed Steam games and at least categorize them. As I mentioned last time, this is manifesting as me picking out three games a month and poking them.

At the suggestion of a friend, this morning I made a “Long Game” category for games that take 20-40+ hours to beat, so instead of trying to beat them as part of this, I can just take note and come back to them later.

(The other categories are:

Beat the Game But Would Play Again (self explanatory)
Beat the Game! (for games I have beaten and probably will not play again)
Fun! (games that can be played on and off, and that I want to do so)
Idle Games (idle miners and clickers)
Online Multiplayer (self-explanatory)
Tried but Eh (didn’t like or were frustrating for whatever reason)
Uncategorized)

March

For March I selected Garden Story (a continuation from February, as it’s a longer game, 40 hours or so), Stardew Valley (which I bought cuz it was half price and everyone seems to love it), and Alba: A Wildlife Story.

Alba: A Wildlife Story

I definitely picked up Alba as part of a bundle of games. I super enjoyed this one. It took me about four hours to beat, which seems to be the sweet spot, honestly. Not too long where I can get distracted by other things, not too short to not be worth it. I finished it over the course of about four days. It’s part “find and photograph animal” game, part pro-environmental messaging, part puzzle game. The story was pretty decent too. I actually teared up a bit at the end. (Category: Beat the Game!)

Garden Story

I did play more of this game, but I didn’t get terribly far. Garden Story is an adventure game where you play a grape named Concord and attempt to save the Grove from the rot that’s eating it. It’s fun, but I have a hard time focusing on long games in any sort of consistent manner. (Category: Long Game)

Stardew Valley

Everyone knows about Stardew Valley, right? It’s not really my type of game (Farming sims have never really been my thing, though I did have SimFarm back in the day, to date myself) but it’s all right. There’s a LOT going on and a lot to keep track of, but I’ve played a bit by myself and some with a friend, who is nicely explaining everything to me, which has been a HUGE help. I don’t know if I would have figured out some aspects of the game on my own. (Category: Long Game)

April

With both Garden Story and Stardew Valley being massive, I specifically picked shorter games for this month. (Thank goodness for the ability to search for average play time.) So for April I have Cleo: A Pirate’s Tale, Princess Farmer, and Here Comes Niko!

Princess Farmer

I picked up Princess Farmer in a bundle as well (and I remember it distinctly, because they didn’t have enough keys for this game in particular and I had to keep checking back. The rest of the games were fine). It wasn’t one of the games I was looking forward to in said bundle, but I actually really enjoyed it. It took me about seven hours to get through the storyline the first time, and there’s a couple of different modes that I’d like to give a try, so this one gets moved into the Fun! category.

Here Comes Niko!

This is also probably a bundle game. In Here Comes Niko!, you’re working as a professional friend, and it’s a combination of a platformer and a puzzle game as you solve problems for people on a variety of islands. I found it extremely frustrating. The controls are very sensitive, and the 3D environment makes a lot of the platforming aspects just too difficult for me. After I’d given up, the smaller, mobile one tried for an HOUR and a HALF to catch five fish for one guy, and couldn’t manage it either. (Category: Tried but Eh)

Cleo: A Pirate’s Tale

I kickstarted this game! Also it’s on SALE for $3 right now, so you should go and grab it. This is an old-school adventure game like the old LucasArts games (one of my favorite video game genres). I’ve only played the intro so far, but I’m really enjoying it. Highly recommend. (Not categorized yet, as I hope to beat it.)

I may go back to A Short Hike! if I have time later in the month–I only played it for about 15 minutes back in February, and I need to give it more of a go to either beat it or move it in a category of some sort.

Have you played any of these games, Squiders? What are your favorite types of games?

The Problem with Side Trails

Good evening, squiders! How’s your April going? Mine is full of volunteer commitments, but luckily I’ve got the biggest of those behind me at this point. Still more, but the stressful ones are done.

So, as we all know, for spring break, I was like, oh, I’ll switch over to Deep and Blue since I’m not going to have as much focusing time, and get that done, and then when the break is over I’ll head back to the Book 1 revision.

And here we are, three and a half weeks later, and we are still on Deep and Blue. I think I’m done now–I came up with the fourth iteration of the book description tonight, which is the final outstanding thing, and I’ve had a couple people look at it, and I’m declaring it Good Enough.

(I posted the cover earlier, but here it is again, just cuz.)

I should know by now that my “oh, I’ll just work on this for this short time period” plans almost always take longer than expected. I mean, not always–sometimes I can take a week off of a big project to do a smaller one–but more often than not. Am I bad at estimating how much time something is going to take? Sometimes. Sometimes, like this particular case, where I’m waiting on feedback, it’s out of my control.

(I did write a side scene on Book 1–basically a behind-the-scenes of what other characters are doing. It won’t ever go into the book but it helps me to explore other characters’ motivations so I know how they’ll react to things or why they’re doing things the way they are. Also read over a couple of other ones that I’d written earlier.)

Anyway, I am declaring Deep and Blue ready to go, and tomorrow we’ll read back over Book 1 thus far (to remind myself where I am and what I’m doing) and then dig into the meat of Act 3, where new chapters are needed and a surprising amount of work needs to be done. Yay.

Also, I need to edit chapters 20-22 from the critique marathon feedback and send them out to my in-person critique group. Probably do that first.

Here’s the final book description for Deep and Blue:

When the surface became unlivable, humanity retreated under the waves.

In the underwater city of Haven, oceanographer Kaeri has been given her first assignment: a coveted spot on the team working to return the people of Haven to the surface.

No friends. No family. An opportunity to earn her place.

Not quite ostracized but never welcomed, Kaeri has never belonged. Something about her parents, though no one has ever explained what. And though she has become a respected scientist, people still shy away from her in the corridors, their conversations dying away.

The new job is a chance to change all that. But before she can begin, strange things start happening. Shadows flit across the security cameras. Doors to airlocks and power generators unlock themselves. And people, across the city, are being attacked by something invisible.

If Kaeri can save Haven from these mysteries, people will have to accept her. But digging into Haven’s secrets may bring answers that were better left alone.

~*~*~*~

So. Refocusing. Moving forward. Deep breaths all around.

See you next week, squiders!

Promo: The Caretaker by Regina Wixon

Good morning, squiders! I’ve got a book for you today! You guys know I love a good Gothic, and this one sounds great! Give it a look!

Haunted Historical Mystery Series, Book 3

Paranormal Thriller

Date Published: February 25, 2024

A blizzard rips through the Black Hills of South Dakota, as journalist Rachael embarks on a journey to Hawthorne House, a remote inn located deep in the frigid wilderness. As the storm rages on, Rachael finds herself caught in a gripping tale of mystery and intrigue, unsure of what lies ahead in the enigmatic world of the treacherous snow-covered landscape and the sinister forces that lurk within Hawthorn House. The icy snowstorm blurs the lines between reality and imagination as Rachael uncovers secrets and revelations that challenge her perception of the caretaker and the true nature of Hawthorn House.

About the Author

Regina endeavors to take her readers on a journey around the United States to be fascinated by our country’s history in a series of chilling books she hopes you will love. She blends a captivating blend of mystery, historical intrigue, and paranormal elements, her gripping novels, weaving together tales of secrets and revelations that span centuries. Her stories often delved into the hidden depths of history, uncovering long-forgotten mysteries and unsolved crimes that haunted the past. It was the paranormal twists that set Regina’s work apart, adding an extra layer of intrigue and suspense that kept readers eagerly turning the pages until the very end. She continues to explore the darker corners of the human experience through her captivating storytelling.

Thank you for reading and please leave a review. Her next book will be coming out in the summer of 2024, The Haunting of York Hall. Any questions or comments? Please visit her wheebsite at reginawixon.com. or follow her on Facebook where she will keep you updated on upcoming books. Questions? Please email her at regina.wixon@gmail.com – She’ll be happy to hear from you!

Contact Links

Purchase Link

Revisiting Writing and Networking

Good afternoon, squiders! Sorry for abandoning you all week! I wish I had a good excuse but I don’t.

I did finish the final edit for Deep and Blue today. It has a publication date now (May 1) and is coming along–just needs to be formatted and the book description needs some tweaking.

(I gotta say, working on marketing material is always so frustrating. I showed the book description to some friends to be like, hey, would you pick up this book? And they generally were like, yeah, it sounds cool! Good job! And then I posted it to a writing community, who pulled it apart and hated all of it. Probably the solution is somewhere in the middle, but it is very disconcerting to have such varied reactions, and I do sometimes wonder if writing communities feel the need to fix things that are perhaps okay as is.)

(Or maybe they know what they’re talking about! Who knows!)

(Anyway.)

(I just want all the Deep and Blue stuff done so I can go back to Book 1! Also I changed a character’s name in the middle and no one, including me, noticed and it was published serially like that, so that’s embarrassing.)

I talked a few weeks ago about potentially going to Pikes Peak Writers’ Conference to network and so forth, and ended up talking myself completely out of it through writing said blog post. I poked around a bit more at writers’ conferences before deciding that they really weren’t what I was looking for (and going farther afield didn’t fix the networking issue), and then I spent some time looking at writing residencies.

Writing residencies sound great, in theory! In some cases you pay, and in others they pay you, and you go somewhere for anywhere for a week to a few months, and all you do is write (and in some cases, maybe teach a class or prepare a piece for wherever you’re staying).

But, of course, I have the small, mobile ones (though at least the bigger, mobile one is not so small anymore). I did find a few retreats that do allow you to bring your whole family (including one only a few hours away!) but arguably if you bring your kids you’re not getting the whole immersive experience that a residency advertises. But, yeah, the ability to just go off on my own for a while without the rest of the family is not really a thing, at the moment.

Also, in almost all cases (but especially for ones where you stay for free or they pay you), there is an application process. And I just can’t see most of these places digging through all these applicants and being, “Ah, yes, this fantasy/science fiction/horror writer is providing the right level of prominence and art that we look for in our program.”

(And then I looked around to see if there was anything specifically for speculative fiction, and aside from fancy workshop programs like Clarion or Odyssey, the answer was no, and those are also quite long and very expensive, and there is an application process for those as well, and you have to apply months and months and months in advance. So yeah.)

So I shelved that idea.

And then I moved onto writing retreats. A retreat is not unlike a residency, where there is an amount of time dedicated to writing. But unlike (some) residencies, there are other writers there, and they tend to be shorter, normally a few days to a week.

I think this is the right solution for right now. It has the networking, it has the writing, and hopefully it will be sort of relaxing. (Plus they will feed me, always a plus.)

I found two happening relatively nearby, happening in the next two months. I did some research and picked one, for the end of May.

Of course, now my spouse is saying he might need to take a business trip over those days.

Sigh.

Anyway, how are you, squiders? Done a writing retreat before? (Or a residency, for that matter?)

Spring Interlude

Howdy howdy, squiders! How’s it going? We’re on spring break this week so all our routines are out of sync, joy of joys. (I did teach the small, mobile ones how to play ERS, Oh Hell, and Hearts, though. Essential life skills.)

Because of the break, I’m putting working on the Book 1 revision on temporary hiatus. Just for this week. But I did manage to get that new chapter I was pondering outlined. It took longer than I would have liked. Everything with this revision requires so much baggage, ugh.

As part of outlining, I went into Book 2 (which took an annoyingly long time to find) to check a couple of things, which is always a bit of a bad idea, because I tend to get caught up in the story and read more than I mean to (and sometimes I get so caught up I go through Book 3 as well, though I managed to avoid that this time). This time, everything that’s wrong with Book 2 really threw me, for some reason.

Book 2 is the oldest of the drafts–according to my notes in the document, I wrote it in 2011, which is forever ago, and so the writing in general is just old. And I’ve done two more revisions on Book 1 since then, so it’s out of date in many places, plot and characterwise.

But still, a problem for future!Kit.

This week we’re working on getting Deep and Blue ready for publication. I made a cover in January, so I’m doing the final edit and working on the book description this month. I think I’ll release it through Kindle Unlimited for now and go wide later in the year.

DnB was originally released as a serial on Turtleduck Press, so there is some clean up to be done in between the sections (unlike Across Worlds with You, I didn’t write it all at once, so there is some summary at the beginnings of the sections that needs removing) and also some weird phrasing, and I think I may have found a plot issue (easy to fix, just need to remove a mention of something, so it’s just deciding which is the right place for the remaining mention to stay).

The book description is, of course, one of the hardest parts, and despite all the years I’ve been publishing and the number of books and anthologies I have worked on, it never seems to get any easier. At some point, surely, this should be a honed skill. But it is not.

Alas.

If I can get the edit and the description done this week, the last step is doing the formatting (ebook only at this point in time, so easier than print) and uploading everything. I love formatting–it’s very relaxing, the left side of brain loves it–but I may put that off til April, because I do need to do some coordination with the rest of Turtleduck Press about publication dates and all that jazz.

Still, it’s nice to work on something else for a minute, and I do really like this story, so it’s been fun to read back through it again.

Happy Spring, squiders! See you next week!

Enter Act Three

Well, squiders, I started this blog post three days ago, and then we got two feet of snow, which apparently not only shut down school and work and all that jazz, but also my brain and my productivity.

Digging ourselves out, both literally and figuratively.

I’m in Act 3 of my revision for Book 1 of the trilogy now, which I expected to go fairly smoothly–it does need a new scene, and there’s a point of view issue in one chapter that needs to be fixed (I switched a scene from one POV to the other and did a bad job cleaning it up)–but I was wrong.

Oh, goodness, was I wrong.

I’m on, I want to say, the fourth major revision of this particular story. Originally at the end of Act 2, one of my viewpoint characters dropped out and we didn’t get his again until the very end of the book. With the last revision, I did a major overhaul on this character and added his viewpoint into Act 3. But in general, the structure of Act 3 has remained the same since the second draft (and to be fair, the first draft was so bad and so distant from the current drafts it maybe should not count).

I’ve run into a couple of issues I was not expecting.

The first is that because the structure essentially has not changed, the writing is old. I suspect I didn’t do much re-writing the last go around (aside from POV switching) which makes the writing in this section about ten years old. Awesome.

The second is that the changes I made in Act 1 has made it so the book has alternated viewpoints each chapter perfectly. No character bunching. Until now. And part of me is like, well, if I just add in one more chapter, I can fix this and the POV switching will be perfect until the end of the book.

(Books 2 and 3 are, if I recall, all over the place with POV, but that is a problem for future!Kit.)

Now, of course, one should not put in a chapter just to have a POV pattern, but I do think I have stuff I can put into it that would be interesting and useful. Of course, I also need to spend some time brainstorming, and with everyone home I’m finding it a little hard to think, but I think I shall lock myself in a room in a bit.

Then, of course, there are the problems I was expecting. I did figure out a few days ago where to put the new scene (and how to rearrange some of the existing chapters, viewpoint wise, because the next…three chapters are very long and could probably be broken up a bit), and the viewpoint issue in that rewritten chapter with the POV change should be pretty straightforward too.

I’m pretty sure I went into this revision thinking all the problems were at the beginning. And maybe it wasn’t until I fixed those issues that these at the end became apparent.

Oh well. On we blindly stumble. I am almost done and I cannot wait.

See you next week, squiders.

WriYe and Revision

Happy Friday, squiders. How’s your March going? So far I have been extra productive in all my goals except writing (and exercise, though that’s cuz I’ve had a cough for a month. I finish my antibiotics today, though, and in theory I could start back up. Except, at least for me, when I’m out of the exercise habit I always find it hard to get back into it).

March’s WriYe prompt is: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – The R’s of Revision.

Apt, as I’m still deep into my revision. About 90K in, in fact, which is madness in of itself.

A lot of people use editing and revision interchangeably, but if we want to be really pedantic about it (and, alas, I love being pedantic), “editing” is the physical fixing–the typos, the grammar, the making sure the facts stay the same throughout the whole story. Revision is the act of changing the content of the story, or rearranging the plot, and things along those lines.

So typically one does their revision(s), and then the editing gets done last step before publication.

I’ve never heard of the R’s of revision before personally (and, as aside, I hate putting apostrophes in plurals, even if Rs looks weird and is potentially confusing), but let’s go through them anyway. I do like the metaphor.

Reduce

People say they write lean or fat, which essentially means that in their first draft they either write too little or too much. Most people who do either are aware of the fact, and know they need to add or remove words when they do their revision. Someone who writes too lean may need to add in descriptions or subplots, whereas someone who writes too fat may need to remove them instead. Arguably overwriting is more common than underwriting, with people including things that are unneeded or bogging down the story.

So I’m going to say the Reduce is cutting out things that your story doesn’t need. Loose threads that didn’t go anywhere, characters who aren’t helping the plot, that three page description of the beauty of the sunset. Streamlining the story into its most efficient self.

(I used to be both a lean and a fat writer, depending on the story, but as time has gone on my first drafts tend to be about the same as the final.)

Reuse

This one is pretty self explanatory. You should definitely reuse stuff from older drafts if it still works. Though I do find that even if it’s not changing substantially, it may need to be reworked to match the writing style of the rest of the current draft.

Recycle

If we look at Reduce, Reuse, Recycle in its original meaning, reduce is using less packaging so there’s less to throw away/recycle, reuse is, uh, reusing something (such as using plastic tubs as storage containers, or using fabric grocery bags instead of single-use plastic), and recycling is breaking something down into its base self and then using that to make something new. (Or a new version of the same thing. I imagine you can make aluminum cans indefinitely.)

So, in a revision context, recycling could be taking elements from your story that aren’t working and putting them into your Little Darlings stable, or whatever you call the place where you put story elements without a home. A side character that’s threatening to derail your current plot could make a main character for another, for example.

Although, on some level, each draft, especially one where you’re doing major work on characterization, plot, or some other core element of the story, could be considered recycling. You’re taking the story you have and “recycling” it into a newer and hopefully better version of itself. Taking the story down to its base parts and rebuilding it into the same story again.

Yeah, I dig this metaphor.

What do you think, squiders?

Used Bookstore Finds: The Elvenbane by Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey

Good morning, squiders. Hope you’re doing well!

I finally finished The Elvenbane, which I think I started two years ago. Do you ever do this? There wasn’t anything wrong with the story–and I did enjoy it in the end–but sometimes I just put a book down and then…take forever in picking it back up. If I pick it back up. It’s different than a conscious decision to not finish a book for whatever reason.

I’m not 100% sure where I picked up the book, but it has a pink dot on the side, so maybe Goodwill?

Title: The Elvenbane
Author: Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey
Genre: Fantasy
Publication Year: 1991

Pros: Great worldbuilding with several distinct cultures
Cons: Older fantasy format with lots of viewpoints

I do want to say that I’m not against having a lot of viewpoints–high fantasy tends to do this, even today–but I’m not wild about including viewpoints we only see once. Maybe we just…don’t need to see what that person is up to.

ANYWAY, The Elvenbane is principally the story of Shana, an elf/human halfbreed who is found and raised by dragons. The dragons live in caves in the desert, keeping their existence a careful secret from the elves who run the rest of the world (both dragons and elves consider the humans to be animals) so they can live in peace. They can shapeshift, so occasionally some of them go among the elves/humans to see what they’re up to/cause trouble, including spreading a prophecy about the Elvenbane, a half breed who will destroy the elves. (As such halfbreeds are prohibited.)

There’s a lot going on here, and while the book is in limited third (so only one person’s head at a time) there’s a lot of different types of characters. As I said, there’s a number of single chapters from some characters’ viewpoints (and a lot of those almost feel like unfinished threads–like they were throwing things at the wall to see what would stick) which I didn’t particularly care for, and sometimes other characters get lost.

Something interesting I noted is that a lot of the action happens offstage. Like, a viewpoint will end with the lead up to something happening, and then the next viewpoint will be reacting to that thing having happened. In some cases it made me feel a bit robbed, but in general it worked okay, mostly because the battle or the fight or whatever was skipped is not really the point of the story, you know? Not sure how to explain that.

I did enjoy it though, and apparently it’s the first book of a three book series (the fourth was planned but never published due to Andre Norton’s death). I don’t think I’ll read the rest of the books–I feel like we left things in a good place, and I had no idea there were any more books until I started this blog post.

I think I picked this book up because Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey are both SFF greats who I’ve heard of but have read very little by. I wonder how they went about writing together. I’m always very interested in how other authors handle collaborations.

Have you read The Elvenbane, squiders? What’s your favorite Andre Norton and/or Mercedes Lackey book?