Getting a bite at a convenience store

[sarcasm font] When she said she was going to drop by the The Barn Store and get a bite, I thought… [/sarcasm font] 😉

KUSA 9News Denver: ‘Vampire-like’ woman appears in court

Denver neck biter gets month in jail

“The Radleys” book review

It’s no surprise that Alfonso Cuarón has signed on to direct the motion picture version of The Radleys.

Matt Haig’s twisted take on a family of vampires living in British suburbia is redolent of the “co-existence with normal neighbours” humor in the early books of the “Harry Potter” saga (including “The Prisoner of Azkaban”, of which Cuarón directed the film version).

But will the movie give us this thought from inside Will Radley’s head?
(from Page 306 in the U.K. novel version)

“I am Lord Byron.
I am Caravaggio.
I am Jimi Hendrix.
I am every bloodsucking descendent of Cain who ever breathed this planet’s air.
I am the truth.”

Lines like the above are why movies will never replace written words’ power to put you inside their characters’ heads. 😀

The basic plot: Peter and Helen Radley live a “normal” life in Bishopthorpe, their adolescent children Clara and Rowan unaware of their vampire status until Clara is turned by an unexpected event. Her brother Rowan then realizes he is the “freak” his taunting enemies have made him out to be.

Then the family has to deal with Peter’s nomadic brother, Will. A chap “allergic to responsibility”, and a fair bit more than just the Radley children’s “eccentric uncle”. 😈

“The Radleys” has been marketed for both adult and young adult readers, but many lines seem to aim for the “firmly adult” audience, such as (from Page 90, U.K. novel version):

“Or even the Stones, when the vampire was still with them.”

A bulls-eye for those of us who feel the Rolling Stones were never the same after Brian Jones left, maybe less so for young adults who may not “get” the above in-joke without the help of Google, Wikipedia, and/or their grandparents. 😉

That said, the anguish Clara and Rowan feel about their new lives will resonate powerfully with readers in every age group. Peter and Helen’s realistically depicted marriage is a nice counterpoint to the typical paranormal romance sagas where companionship is seen only through rose-colored glasses.

There is a great twist concerning Helen Radley’s past. Her brother-in-law Will, however, turns out exactly as any decently astute reader would expect him to. I was left wanting a little bit of a twist for Will, but this didn’t happen.

Other than this minor quibble, I give “The Radleys” four-and-a-half stars out of five. Light on gore, heavy on characters’ heartfelt emotions and Matt Haig’s wicked, sardonic sense of humor. I can recommend this novel for those who don’t usually like to read “vampire” novels. This is a novel I wouldn’t mind having written myself, although I would have had to make a few changes to pass my critique group’s strict standards. 😈

Special thanks to Canongate Books and Vampires.com for making this review possible! 😀

Worldbuilders 2011: Donate and win

What’s that you say? You want to make the world a better place while simultaneously winning fabulous prizes? Well today is your lucky day.

Worldbuilders 2011 – Win cool books, change the world

Special thanks to my friend Christopher Eldridge for blogging about this wonderful cause.

I am pleased to help Chris E. and Patrick Rothfuss spread the word. 😀

The Mill River Recluse

Yahoo News: How (Darcie Chan) became a best selling author.

A dozen publishers and more than 100 literary agents rejected (The Mill River Recluse).

It has sold more than 400,000 copies and landed on the best-seller lists.

There’s also Amanda Hocking (Toronto Star article).

She kept writing, kept sending query letters to publishers, and kept getting nothing but rejection letters back.

After “Switch” was turned down (which has become her best-selling book, she says), Hocking looked into self-publishing.

What’s right with this picture? 😉

In my Oct 2nd post The Rejection Window, I said:

By (5-10 years from now), the majority of authors will be likely to e-publish their manuscripts immediately after the traditional publishing industry’s first rejection. Revisions of manuscripts just to fit the ever-changing whims of agents and traditional publishing will increasingly be seen as a waste of time and effort. The implications of this sea change are staggering.

The next watershed event (and this will be epic): Someone will sell 500,000+ e-books without ever having submitted the novel to anyone in the traditional publishing industry.
I can just picture this author quoted as saying, “Why bother? They would have just rejected it anyway!” 😆

Said event would reach whole-new-level epic status if the author sells the motion picture rights and the title becomes a hit movie! 😈

National Geographic Vampire Babies

Yes, folks, even National Geographic is now delving into the world of Vampire-Human offspring.

Of course, their article assumes Vampires are “undead” (like almost everything else written about Vampires in the last 300 years! 😈 ) , and addressing the procreation issues concerning living, breathing Vampires would require writing an entirely new article. 😆