Usurping Cats

Have been thinking about my late kitties recently. Know so because I've been watching old cat videos and longing for the days when I had two cats on my lap. But I'm also thinking about how smart cats are...or aren't.

Discovered Leighann Dobb's cat/ghost mystery, Ghostly Paws. It seemed a purrfect read for my mood. Dobbs is a prolific writer with good reviews and even awards. I'm missing my cats, and I love ghost stories, right?

What's bothered me about the book was the cats being smarter than humans. Chauvinistic of me? I don't think so, even when considering a paranormal mystery.

Oh, I found the book an acceptable, light-weight entertainment of the conventional kind. The mystery contains all the crucial parts, even was book one in the series. The problem is that the cat made the better detective than the human...even if it didn't talk.

Willa, the protagonist, moves to Mystic Notch where her sister is sheriff to take over her grandmother's book store and house after a car accident ended her journalism career. Willa took over her grandmother's cat. too. Actually, the cat took over Willa in the sense it goaded her into the finding of the clues to the murder

What I missed the most in the book was the lack of tension. Oh, Willa gets yelled at as she's also pushed by the ghost of the fussy librarian to find her murderer. She even pukes on the developing love interest.

Still, I finished the book. But, it didn't hold my interest or keep me up. The gauge: I found I reread two of Tamora Pierce's Tortell quartets while reading Ghostly Paws. It's not unusual for me to read two books in tandem according to my mood, but I felt real reluctance in returning to Willa's problems.

The ghost didn't do much for me, either. Thought she was one dimensional. Granted I think I'd like to think I'd goad someone who could see me to solve my murder, too. But the victim never gets beyond the fussy librarian trope.

Bottom line: Ghostly Paws is a nice beach book or a book to read when you know you'll be interrupted a lot. You can learn more about the book on 

Amazon     Barns & Noble  

----o----

My Writing Rut

You're reading book reviews from me again because I trying to project a more professional writing presence for the book I've almost finished: The Pig Wars. My website and blog have been upgraded. I've also gone and commissioned another cover for The Pig Wars which is

now in copy edits. I really think I'll meet my Fall publishing date. The prequel to the book is also in edits. I may have to decided which I'll publish first.

One funny thing. When I sent my manuscript back to the editor for copy edits, I expected to add a few more pages to my total. Then, I got them back for me to make the changes. They are mostly deletions. The manuscript will still be above 80,000 words. But the editor has been right for the first four chapters. The manuscript is littered with superfluous phrases.

I have a semi-mystery of my own hanging out on my desktop: The Ghostly Killing Fields or some such title, featuring Dumdie Swartz of The Ghost in the Closet and The Ghostcrow. I'm hoping it'll be close to 100 pages. I sporadically add to the current chapter. The draft needs major work, but I'm trying to get an ending on the piece before I revise.

Only I have another Half-Elven novel with first edits not transferred/rewritten that I found when I moved chewing on me...Dark Solstice, featuring Mariah discovering she has a granddaughter some 400 years after The Pig Wars.

Decisions. Decisions.

----o----

My Reading Pile

Finally broke down and bought the hardcover of Patricia Brigg's Wild Sign, part of her werewolf universe as in her Mercy Thompson and Alpha and Omega series. I won't be reviewing it. But I've been sneaking peeks as I copy edit The Pig Wars. If you haven't tuned into Brigg's worlds, you should go haunt some used book stores...or new ones too.

Dragons, Tigers, and Elves, Oh My!

Dragons can be annoying.

So if you don't like those preternaturals,

How about vampires, trolls, shifters, and half-breeds galore?

 

Lessons from My Reading

This year I've been working my way through Lindsay Buroker's laugh-out-loud dragon
series, featuring Val, a middle-aged, half-elf loose cannon assassin and Zav, a powerful, pompous dragon lord who wears interesting shoes, like yellow crocs.

Oh, the fantasy elements are there in abundance, as is action, magic, and shifting around multi-dimensional worlds. Humans, goblins, dragons, fairies, elves, vampires, shifters, trolls, half-breeds of all kinds, both friend and foe, abound. The wondrous part is that Buroker manages to make even the clichés her own. [Example: Buroker uses caramel chocolates to distract a pissy fae queen.]

Mostly, I enjoy the wicked first person point of view Buroker uses to make the most of a wise-cracking middle-aged protagonist. Her take on our modern world--Seattle in particular--often makes me pause even when I'm not laughing.

Buroker is also strong on drawing secondary characters. I enjoyed the fact that her human characters are almost as diverse as the preternaturals. All are well drawn and distinct. Her boss, Colonel Willard, is even more snappy than Val plus the more intimidating woman. [Val has an insecure streak as wide as a fun house mirror.]  Basically, Buroker makes Val's band of friends a crucial part of the stories.

Oh, I forgot the tiger companion. He's the i-beam that makes the series with his dry, snarky advice to Val.

Bottom line on the nine books in this series: They're action-oriented urban fantasy. By definition that means that the books are basically light and move fast without much introspection from the characters. Yet they have endless charm...and laughs. More important, well-done humor is rare and a great treat.

All I can do is look on with envy. I'll never write as funny...or as fast. There's still one more book for me to read in this series which I think is complete. Buroker does have other series...though I haven't read them.

You can find the Death by Dragons books on Amazon, and Barnes & Noble 

You can find her other many novels on iBooks and kobo.

 

~~~0~~~

 

My Writing Rut

My book The Pig Wars, a Half-Elven novel set after the Rebellion created a safe-haven for them in the Far Isles, is coming along nicely, complete with a romantic ending. [I
don't know where that came from, but it's there.] Renna isn't quite as snarly as she is in Vengeance, set 400 years later.-- I'd think I'd be cantankerous, too, if my hair was white and I needed a walking stick when my childhood friend still looked like a sexy young woman.

My editor is going through the third content edits...slightly delayed by the death of her dog. After I transfer her suggestions/comments, come the copy edits and formatting. I really think the book will be published in Fall, 2021...in spite of how slow I am.

Perhaps, my eye troubles haven't be able to keep a good book down. At least, my editor thinks it's good. Said I should try a traditional publisher. My ego would like me to try. But I'm a realist. At my age, I'd probably be dead before the agent/publisher-finding-process ran its course. Yeah, it'd probably take five years and umpteen "not for us" rejections before I even found an agent...if I found an agent.

Heads up. This is my first blog in awhile, and I don't seem to be working it too well. I can't find the links or buttons I want.