~ A Book Review: The Dragon Prince, BOOK ONE: THE MOON, Aaron Ehasz & Melanie McGanney Ehasz ~

I have finished reading my seventh novel for 2023, The Dragon Prince, BOOK ONE: THE MOON, by Aaron Ehasz & Melanie McGanney Ehasz. This is one of those books picked up on a whim purely by the title and the look of the cover. Didn’t read the back cover, not the first page, nothing. The story premise is that the criminal act of humans trespassing into the fantasy land of Xadia, and destroying the only egg of the Dragon King and Queen, resulted in the 1000-year war between the 5 Human Kingdoms and the Xadian Elves. Our female protagonist, Kayla, is a Moonshadow elf assassin passionately pursuing her first self-created mission: to kill the human king Harrow and the young prince Ezran.

Before she can fulfill her quest, determined Rayla witnesses Ezran and his brother, Callum, make an astonishing discovery: the dragon egg the world thought was destroyed is intact. There is a delightful shift in focus for Rayla from revenge killing to uniting with the humans in an exciting bid to save the egg and bring peace. The goal becomes big enough for us to care about. I think that’s what I liked most about the story. It’s refreshing for a character to change trajectory completely, and I enjoyed that. What I didn’t like so much, the book never seemed to flesh out the characters quite enough to satisfy, despite the book being over 260 pages. If it was a shorter book aimed at a younger audience then the simple structure would fit.

Not having heard of the title before, I’ve got to be honest, I finished this book thinking, what am I missing? Then, I checked the book by reading the back cover and researching online. That was when the penny dropped. BOOK ONE: MOON is a canon novel based on the latest Netflix original series, The Dragon Prince. The books have been written for a specific purpose, to serve an established fan base, to embellish upon a world and characters already known to the audience.
Once I knew this, I felt I understood BOOK ONE: MOON, and from there, I could appreciate it as a decent companion novel. The story premise is decent, and the characters are endearing. I would probably happily read the whole series. However, it goes without saying that the ideal scenario would be to watch the Netflix series before reading the books.

The Dragon Prince series was created and developed by Aaron Gabriel Ehasz (born June 16, 1973), an American screenwriter. Ehasz was the head writer for AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER.” Also a television producer, he is co-creator of the Netflix series The Dragon Prince. Ehasz wrote the paperback series with his wife, Melanie McGanney. Melanie is a New York native with a master’s in English literature. The novels, BOOK ONE: MOON, followed by BOOK TWO: SKY and BOOK THREE: SUN were lapped up by fans. The word on the street is that hopes are high for further installments in the future.
This is a tricky book to rate, considering the genre. But I’ll do it anyway.
My rating: Two stars

Talk to you later.
Keep reading!
Yvette Carol
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But we have to take whatever beauty we can get, however, we can get it. ~ George Saunders

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~ IWSG: Writing Pathways ~

It’s time for another group posting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group! Time to release our fears to the world or offer encouragement to those who are feeling neurotic. If you’d like to join us, click on the tab above and sign up. We post on the first Wednesday of every month. Every month, the organizers announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG Day post. Remember, the question is optional!!! Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!
Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG.

April 5 question – Do you remember writing your first book?
Like it was yesterday. My first book was called The Survivors, which I started writing to pass the time when I was a young stay-at-home mum. And it was fantasy fiction for children, so it has long been my chosen genre. I remember the sheer joy I felt escaping through the window of my imagination while my baby was sleeping. The story followed the escape and epic journey of a tribe of little critters called Scrifs who were searching for a home. The bad guys were the Stirrits riding grotesque birds that looked like pterodactyls.

The characters sprang from my pen with such velocity in those days. I recall spending a lot of time doodling them down the margins of the page – little pen & ink critters doing different actions. They were so alive in my mind. For those periods of writing each day, I could be somewhere else, not the 17-year-old with her hands in a napisan bucket two times a day, washing cloth nappies – we had no washing machine, nor could we afford disposables. With the flick of a biro on a pad of foolscap paper, I could be in another, better world, having the adventures of 100 lifetimes. It was exhilarating. That was when I got bitten by the bug of writing fiction. Truly. Completely.

What were your thoughts about a career path in writing?

Those were the days before attending workshops, children’s literature festivals, or conferences, before reading any books on the craft, joining any writers’ groups, or listening to any lectures. I had no thoughts. I was like the wonderful self-published author, Chris Parker, who talked to my friend’s writing group last weekend, unaffiliated to anyone or anything and wholly unaware of the industry.

As a complete greenhorn, I wrote to please myself. I wrote for my child and the eternal child within me. I wrote for the unadulterated bliss of it.
It wasn’t until a few years later that I heard of Wendy Pye Publishing, which was one of the biggest traditional children’s publishers in New Zealand at the time. First, I studied all their books. Then, I started writing (and illustrating) similar short stories for 5 – 7-year-olds in the classroom. Two stories got shortlisted, and one Wendy Pye held onto for over a year before finally returning them to me unpublished. Over the intervening years, I started submitting manuscripts for children’s stories to different publishers. Two books were again shortlisted – one they would publish if I let them change all the characters’ names. The other they would publish but would only pay 5%, half the going rate for unsolicited manuscripts at the time. I turned both offers down.

Where are you now, and how is it working out for you?

Today I’m an indie author with three books in print and stories in two anthologies. I reached a certain point where I stopped waiting for someone else to say my stories were good enough for publication. These days authors have options. I published my books, releasing my trilogy, The Chronicles of Aden Weaver, in 2020. And I can tell you that was one of the most satisfying moments in my life. It took about a week for the smile to wear off after the launch day. I felt I was in charge of my destiny and that felt fine.
I’m working on the first book in my next middle-grade series at present with my stellar writing group, The Fabulatores. I write in my “spare time” at the weekends, and I fully intend to write as long as I’m alive. I heard it said that you know you’ve found your life purpose when you’d be willing to do it even if you never received any money. That’s the way I feel about story writing. I hope to be like Barbara Cartland, who lived to a ripe old age and was still propped up in bed, writing her romance stories by hand, at the very end of her life. Can’t think of a better way to go.
What about you? Where are you now?

Keep Writing!
Yvette Carol
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‘I once heard someone say that “given infinite time, anything can happen.” ~ George Saunders

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~ A Book Review: The Dragonslayer’s Apprentice, by David Calder ~

I have finished reading my fourth novel for 2023, The Dragonslayer’s Apprentice, by David Calder. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this slim novel which I picked up for a dollar at a local book fair, apart from expecting a few dragons. It turned out to be a story about Jackie, a fifteen-year-old female dragonslayer’s apprentice, though written from the point of view of the Dragonslayer. The story is set in medieval times and follows the fortunes of the Dragonslayer as he and his team attend various towns in need of their services. Jackie is not the male apprentice her master had wanted. The Dragonslayer, (who remains unnamed throughout) thinks he must be “stark-staring, raving mad” to take on young Jackie. Naturally, we expect the story will prove that he was right to take a chance on a female apprentice, and with a few adventures along the way, that is what happens.

One of the first things that struck me about this novel was the tone. It was tongue-in-cheek. The Dragonslayer noticed that it took each of the latter about ten minutes to say, in effect, that they had nothing to say. Why don’t they have a meeting with the beast and just bore it to death, he thought. From the get-go, we realize this book is not taking itself seriously, which is fun for the child reader. The enigmatic assistant, Ron, says ‘two words a day’, and his gestures and grunts are interpreted by the Dragonslayer in regular comedic installments. He translates a nod as, “I’ve unpacked the equipment, checked it, sharpened everything, made repairs where necessary, oiled everything, laid it out in order, and locked it up safely.” LOL.
First published by Scholastic New Zealand Ltd, in 1997, with the tagline, “She’s smarter than Xena, funnier than Guinevere, and spunkier than Catherine (a.k.a. Birdy). She’s Jackie, Dragonslayer-in-training, and she’s moving through the land to kick some major tail!” I like that. These days girl power is trending. I suspect that back in the 90s, the idea was new and exciting. Kudos to Calder. The problem was, despite the official backing of a traditional publisher, the book failed to launch, which is a shame because the characters are there and it’s a decent story.

No one can really ever say how another person’s story should be written. Art is art. However, in my opinion, there is not enough structure. I prefer the structure nailed down. The plot arc pertains to Jackie being a female in a “traditionally” male role. She faces sexism throughout, with most folks being surprised by her gender and then dumbfounded when she dispatches the monsters. Toward the end of the book, the Dragonslayer realizes Jackie is a worthy apprentice, and the guild of dragonslayers welcomes Jackie to the guild. We discover she is a princess who had feared the royal family would disapprove of her apprenticeship to the Dragonslayer. The king and queen, who are in attendance, accept her back into the family fold. I feel it would develop that connection and tension for us readers if the fact that Jackie was a runaway princess had been introduced in the beginning. Then by her endeavours, and her adventures, if she had built the courage to triumph, face her parents, and get welcomed into the guild, we could engage with her on a deeper level. But Jackie’s feelings about her parents and her royal heritage do not appear until the last four pages of the book. It could have proved the emotional heart of the story. And, unfortunately, from the point of view of character arcs, Jackie starts smart and sassy and ends up more or less the same way, too, which is a lost writing opportunity.
A great story is about cause and effect. The reader endures the building tension to see if the characters will get through/win the day, know the answers to the story questions, and rise through the arc of their journey. With The Dragonslayer’s Apprentice, the small band accompanies the Dragonslayer traveling from one town to another to defeat various beasts. Surprisingly there is only one dragon. There is a giant kitten (?), a pair of monstrous killer birds, and a woman claiming to be a witch. Jackie gradually proves herself a worthy apprentice. It is a good enough story in itself. But, it could have been so much better if the chapters had been better connected to build the tension necessary to keep us turning pages. When you reach the end of the book, there is not enough emotional payoff. No cause and effect; no payoff.

When I realized the author was a New Zealander, I looked up David Calder to learn more. He is a Kiwi-American author of two novels who cites his influences as F Scott Fitzgerald, Wilbur Smith, and Bernard Cornwell. Calder has a fascinating backstory. He was a soldier during the Vietnam era and had two engineering careers in the US, in automotive and software businesses, before transitioning to full-time writing. These days, Calder divides his time between a small horse farm in the Waitakere Ranges north of Auckland in New Zealand, as well as his base in Long Beach, Southern California. He is working on a follow-up to Redemption Cove, set in southern France, and another Israeli terrorism novel.

My rating: One and a half stars

Talk to you later.
Keep reading!
Yvette Carol
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“Act I — Get your character up a tree; Act II — throw rocks at him; Act III — get him down again.” ~ Anne R. Allen

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~ IWSG: Book Envy ~

It’s time for another group posting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group! Time to release our fears to the world or offer encouragement to those who are feeling neurotic. If you’d like to join us, click on the tab above and sign up. We post on the first Wednesday of every month. Every month, the organizers announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG Day post. Remember, the question is optional!!! Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!
Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG.

March 1 question – Have you ever read a line in novel or a clever plot twist that caused you to have author envy?
All the time! My gosh, I couldn’t begin to count how many times that has happened. Isn’t it fairly typical of all writers (and artists) that we compare ourselves unfavourably to those peers we most admire?
In the last few years, I’ve read some stellar novels. The boys and I read Mortal Engines, the first book in the award-winning Mortal Engines quartet, by Philip Reeve, and every night, after reading, we’d have to talk it over. We could not read four pages and go to bed silently. I thought, wow, imagine publishing a book that stirred people that way. The unique dystopian world, the images raised large in our minds, the issues brought to life clamoured to be heard. The boys and I would end up having long existential conversations, in consequence, thinking about pollution, progress, and what we would do if… I felt deep envy of the vastness of the concept Reeve had conjured. It was so fresh and keen, the world-building first class, the story gripping. It was dangerous and scary at times, touching at others, spellbinding – it had it all. And, boy, did I wish I’d thought of the sheer scope of the Mortal Engines world.

Another book that stands out is Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield. This one is mainly because of the lyrical style of storytelling and the truly intriguing central question, that of a drowned girl who, hours later, seemingly comes back to life. How? This perplexing mystery draws us through incredibly detailed depictions of country life revolving around the enigmatic Thames River. Unfortunately, the answer to the mystery lets the whole novel down. Therefore, any feelings I’d had of wishing I’d written the enchantingly detailed body of the book had dissipated by the end.
Then there was Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, a tour de force of world-building enough to make any fantasy writer quake with covetousness. From the astonishing opening, I read with my mouth agog. It begins:
When the Moon rose in the Third Northern Hall I went to the Ninth Vestibule
Entry for the first day of the fifth month in the year the albatross came to the south-western halls

And with those words, one finds oneself ushered into the House, which shares its halls with the tide and the earnest, endearing Piranesi, the only living inhabitant of the House apart from the strange weekly visits from a man he calls the Other. So beguiling, so otherworldly, so clever, and haunting was this novel that I literally “looked forward” to every chance I got to read some more. As with Mortal Engines, I found myself thinking about Piranesi long after each day’s reading. I was absorbed. And the twist was killer. What I envied most was the world-building prowess demonstrated by Clarke. Being a fantasy author, I know how hard it is to build a world out of thin air, and to do so as convincingly as this was awe-inspiring. The world of the House was so real in my mind I wished I could go there. Piranesi won the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2021 and was chosen as Book of the Year by The Times, Guardian, Observer, Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, and many more. That book is envy-worthy!

That wraps up the books I’ve read recently. But, if we go a bit further back in time (say 50 years, to my childhood), then we reach the pinnacle. Last but certainly not least in the jealousy stakes has to be my all-time favourite books, which most readers of this blog will have heard me bang on about many times before, the Moomin series by Tove Jansson. What I love and admire the most about this series is the charm, the sense of humour, and the child-centered voice with all the guilelessness and transparent innocent joy of a child in springtime. Even reading them as an adult, the humour on every page is subtle, sweet, and life-affirming, the books make me want to weep with happiness. They are the perfect children’s books and deserve their place as revered classics in every library worth it’s salt. Jansson’s masterpiece, the Moomin series, remains my Everest – my hope has long been to one day be a good enough writer to write a series to compare. I don’t know if I’ll ever get there, but that’s my secret (and now, not so secret) hope.
What about you? Are there any books you wished you’d written?

Keep Writing!
Yvette Carol
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To write a story that works, that moves the reader, is difficult, and most of us can’t do it. ~ George Saunders

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~ A Book Review: The Secret Island, by Enid Blyton ~

I have finished reading my third novel for 2023, The Secret Island, by Enid Blyton. I know, I’ve reviewed books by this British author before. But, considering Blyton authored 600 books in her career, they are bound to pop up now and then. The Secret Island was first in The Secret Stories series, which follows the adventures of four spunky kids, Peggy, Mike, Nora, and Jack. As a child, I remember loving The Secret Seven and The Famous Five because capable, resourceful, brave kids solved the mysteries. They were great child-led stories.

The central premise of The Secret Island is that ill-treated children run away to an island and manage to live there without anyone discovering them until someone does. Captured my imagination straight away the idea of the kids escaping from their terrible lives by being clever and figuring out how they could live on an island, and then doing it. The idea was novel, and the various ways the kids figured out how to feed and shelter themselves and structure their days on the island seemed well thought out. A kid would love this.
Our story begins with Mike, Peggy, and Nora Arnold shipped off to live with relatives after their parents are killed in a plane crash. Their aunt and uncle make the siblings work like slaves and mistreat them. Likewise, an orphan living next door called Jack is being neglected and ill-treated by his grandfather. Jack tells the Arnold children about a secret island. The children long to escape, so when their friend Jack takes them to visit the deserted island, they dream of living there.

From that moment on, the children plan their escape meticulously, thinking about what they will need to take to survive in isolation. Then, they slowly – frankly – nick it all. Once they have gathered enough supplies, they make a daring dash for freedom. It’s exciting, and – spoiler alert – they make it. The four kids organize themselves and make a dreamy life on the island. They build a house out of willow, make wonderfully comfortable beds of heather and bracken, and grow their vegetables.
It’s satisfying for the reader to see the kids succeed despite the difficulties. It’s interesting to note that whenever the kids run out of necessities, they sneak back onto the mainland and steal things from the cruel Aunt, Uncle, and Grandfather! Over these thefts, the children have no qualms. They raid both gardens on several occasions. And Jack even nicks his cow, Daisy, and some hens, sneaking them back to the island for fresh milk and eggs! The children are doing so well as cultivators and “borrowers” they’re stretching the seams of their clothes and are happier than they’ve ever been. It’s morally questionable, yet, they are never “taught a lesson” about these misdemeanours, the way they probably would be in modern literature.

I would say The Secret Island is one of my all-time favourite Enid Blyton stories. An island where kids rule? C’mon.
Apart from the day, the invaders come to the secret island at the end, the bulk of the story belongs to the minutiae of the kids’ idyllic life there. These formerly abused children don’t have to go to school. They don’t have to work. Every day, they attend to simple needs: creating food, maintaining their shelter, swimming to bathe then drying off in the sun, and so on. Enchanting and delightful.
Of course, they get found out in the end. Intruders arrive and interrupt their happy idyll and bring the kids back to the real world. I was disappointed the gang had to leave their sanctuary. It was sad when they said goodbye, and also a little odd that they abandoned the cow. LOL. Not sure if Enid dropped the ball there or what, but we won’t hold it against her. Overall, this is a charming story and a lovely lil trip down memory lane.

The Secret Island was first published on January 1, 1938, by Basil Blackwell. It was illustrated by E.H. Davie. Enid Mary Blyton, (1897—1968), was an up-and-coming author in high demand. She had abandoned her studies in music to train as a schoolteacher and had worked as a teacher and governess, but her stories and poems brought her to the attention of the public. She switched to full-time writing in 1924, becoming a tremendously popular author of stories, poems, plays, and educational books for children.
During her career, Blyton came under some criticism for using the same typical adventure template for her stories, for having stereotyped characters and a simplistic viewpoint. However, fans continued to love her unreservedly, and new editions of her stories continue to appear today. By the early 21st century, Enid Blyton’s books had sold some 400 million copies and been translated into at least 90 languages. The readers are always the final arbiters of good stories, and that’s the way it should be.
This book is what my sister-in-law would call cool beans.
My rating: Two and a half stars

Talk to you later.
Keep reading!
Yvette Carol
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Reading is dreaming with your eyes open. ~ Anon

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~ IWSG: Talking About Book Covers ~

It’s time for another group posting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group! Time to release our fears to the world or offer encouragement to those who are feeling neurotic. If you’d like to join us, click on the tab above and sign up. We post on the first Wednesday of every month. Every month, the organizers announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG Day post. Remember, the question is optional!!! Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!
Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG.

February 1 question – If you are an Indie author, do you make your own covers or purchase them? If you publish trad, how much input do you have about what goes on your cover?
I’ll be interested to read other people’s answers to the second part of this month’s question. That’s something I’ve always been curious about – how much input traditional authors have on their covers. One of the things that put me off traditional publishing houses is the fear they would control my end product too much and that my vision would end up being tailored to suit the prevailing market forces or whatever. The cover is incredibly important. For a great many people, the cover sells the book. What is it they say, a face can launch 1000 ships? For me, the cover is more than the face of the book or a mere money-making device. It is my creative intelligence. My book potentially lives on after I’ve gone. It has to be 100% genuinely mine and I need to have consented to every aspect. That is the way I feel about the cover. Besides all that, I want to create everything about my book cover because it’s super fun! You get to do it as a reward after all the hard slog of writing and editing.
I’m an Indie writer. I work on a cover (with the help of my artist and cover designer) until it “feels right” to me. It may sound like magical whatnot. But, it’s a matter of trusting the “gut instinct” to get a really great book cover. I’ve found that instincts will always be right.

Prior to publishing The Chronicles of Aden Weaver, I needed to create the covers. Being a newbie I didn’t know what I was doing. I cruised about on Fiverr. com, trying to find a cover artist. But, how was one to choose from the wealth of talent available? There were hundreds upon hundreds of artists and designers advertising their material. And everyone offering their work for really low prices? The task was truly boggling. I messaged back and forth with a random selection of cover artists, but the process felt cold and soulless. There was no connection with anyone. I didn’t feel reassured that any of them could deliver what I was envisioning.
Then, I had the idea to ask my nephew, Si, who is a natural-born artist, who I’ve always championed, to do the cover art. He is a busy working father of two children under 7. He said he could produce the artwork only if I was patient. That I could do. About six months later, Si came up with the goods right out of the starting gate. I looked at the image for the first book, The Or’in of Tane, and was instantly transported into another time and place with my character. I don’t know if it’s because Si and I have a family bond there, but it was instant love seeing his artistic representation of my protagonist, Aden Weaver, and the setting. I knew the artwork was perfect, and it felt like a real collaboration.

The next step was to design the covers around Si’s art. I talked with Jane Brown from Hydrangea Group. She was the wife of one of the guys at BookPrint, who printed the books for me. She and I talked colours. I chose blue, red, and green. I wanted the book titles at the top and my name at the bottom. Jane showed me the idea of a coloured background panel for the titles making them stand out and we had it. I adore the covers – although they have their share of detractors, as things must do. Well-meaning friends and family like to tell me what’s wrong with the artwork. And, I tell them, art is subjective, and I think the books are exquisite. I strove for deep shades on the covers. To me, they look like jewels. I put out the most beautiful books I could and I am proud of them. It is a warm feeling to share the credits for the covers with my nephew on the inside covers as well. It is a nice legacy for both of us to leave for the next generations of our family. I literally can’t wait to get to work with Si and Jane on the cover for my next book.
How about you? Do you make your own covers? When you shop for books are you swayed by the book cover?

Keep Writing!
Yvette Carol
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Why fetishize the book? None of the other vehicles for narrative bear this intimacy of simultaneously cradling and being cradled by a paperweighted world of still words. ~ By George Prochnik

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~ A Book Review: Nancy Drew, The Secret in the Old Lace, by Carolyn Keene ~

I have finished reading my second novel for 2023, a Nancy Drew mystery, The Secret in the Old Lace, by Carolyn Keene. I have fond memories of reading Nancy Drew mysteries as a young girl and was curious to take a peek back into my past. It is interesting, is it not, to read material that fascinated us when we were children and gain that window to our more innocent, younger selves.

The first part of the mystery is the cold case of a famous Belgian aristocrat, Francois Lefevre, who vanished in the 1700s. A magazine runs a contest where people can write the “solution” and win a prize. Needless to say, our ‘attractive titian-haired girl’ Nancy Drew enters the contest with her story solution. Bess’ mom has asked Nancy and the girls to solve the mystery of Madame Chambray, a friend of hers in Bruges, who has found a fancy cross and wants Nancy’s help finding the owner. Add to this a side plot where the bad guys, having heard about the cross, try to sidetrack Nancy by stealing her story and submitting a copy of it before her entry arrives. Then Nancy gets accused of plagiarism.

*Spoiler alert* (I’m going to tell you what happens).
The intrepid sleuth leaves her father to sort out the accusation of plagiarism, while she jets off to Belgium with her pals. While staying with Madame Chambray, the girls learn of another mystery involving the home. Somewhere on the grounds, the famous Belgian aristocrat who vanished has a hidden treasure. The girls meet the great-grandson of the aristocrat, and they discover the hiding place of his lace cuffs and the fortune, which turns out to be jewelry. Nancy has solved the century-old mystery. Hurrah!

It was a company called the Stratemeyer Syndicate that created the Nancy Drew series. The author’s name, “Carolyn Keene,” was a pseudonym used by many people – both men and women – over the years. But the original writer of the first 23 novels was Mildred Benson (aka: Mildred A. Wirt). Also contributing to Nancy Drew’s catalogue of titles were Walter Karig, Leslie McFarlane, James Duncan Lawrence, Nancy Axelrod, Priscilla Doll, Charles Strong, Alma Sasse, Wilhelmina Rankin, George Waller Jr., and Margaret Scherf. Notably, Harriet Stratemeyer, the daughter of Edward Stratemeyer, also wrote a number of novels.

Nancy Drew still has fans all around the world. However, the stories don’t stand up too well to modern scrutiny. Casual sexism and outdated attitudes rankle. In 1959, a concerted effort was made by the publishers to rewrite the earlier books, removing racial stereotyping and attempting to update the language. But 1959 was a long time ago, and there is still a lot left to raise an eyebrow. Nancy’s boyfriend Ned is mentioned multiple times as a potential hero to rescue the girls if needed. Nancy says at one point that she would not be able to stop the bad guy herself but would need a man to do it. Also, the non-P.C. element of constantly mentioning Bess’ weight would not fly these days, and we are told: “calories are bad.” Nekminit, George grabs a kid and shakes them. The P.C. police would have a field day!
Reading a book like this is an invitation to consider how much things have changed in our modern era. Nancy Drew is the sort of light reading that reminds us of simpler times. The child reader I was fifty years ago did not think to question stereotypes or gender bias. I read for the love of reading alone. That’s a lovely state to remember. These classic stories are a bit of naive fun. Having said that, I doubt I’d bother reading another Nancy Drew novel anytime soon. There is insufficient specificity, zero character development, no depth, and no real challenge to the mystery. Perhaps some books are best left to our fond childhood memories.
My rating: One star

Talk to you later.
Keep reading!
Yvette Carol
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“For me, euphoria is simply the act of waking up, making my coffee, and sitting down with a book and being able to read.” Elliot Page

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~ A Book Review: The Grimm Conclusion, by Adam Gidwitz ~

In 2020, I challenged myself to get back into reading. That year I set the bar high by completing twelve novels. A big step up from 0. Then I went further by reading a total of eighteen books in 2021. But, somehow, last year, I fell back to thirteen. As a person who sets high standards for herself, this came as quite a blow. A fellow blogger said she had read 166 books and that the standard number read by most Americans is thirteen or fourteen. The goal for this Kiwi in 2023 is to read more than thirteen! The challenge is on! And I’m proud to say I have already finished reading my first novel for 2023, The Grimm Conclusion, A Tale Dark & Grimm #3 by Adam Gidwitz.

I bought this book while cruising around the secondhand bookstores at Christmas. I thought anything to do with the Brothers Grimm would be interesting. Boy, it did not disappoint. The Grimm Conclusion is the final book in Gidwitz’s acclaimed series, A Tale Dark & Grimm, preceded by A Tale Dark and Grimm and In a Glass Grimmly. Gidwitz did the brilliant thing of retelling the famous Grimm fairytales with a stroke of genius, adhering more closely to their original gruesome forms. Blood, gore, and death abound. So horrifying are these tales that the Middle-Grade reading age is sometimes questioned. Are these children’s stories?
But, I was entertained from the first minute of reading because I have read a number of the original fairytales. I remember vividly reading an early version of Cinderella. There was a scene where the ugly sisters were so desperate to fit their feet into the glass slipper they cut off their toes and stuffed their feet into the shoe, blood dripping everywhere. I could not believe a modern author would have the audacity to retell these stories. And let’s face it, that’s where the richness, the weight, and the true meaning of the stories lie.

As an adult reader, the opening line amused me. “Once upon a time, fairy tales were grim.” Surprise after surprise followed. When one considers the 8 -12-year-olds reading this book. Raised on the diluted fodder of today, I imagine the child reader would immediately devour the book whole. The narrator is hilarious in a dark, daring, dangerous way. On the first page, he talks directly to the reader – which drags you in, like being sucked into Jumanji (you can’t resist). He wants to tell us the story of Ashputtle. “‘Cinderella’ is the name of the cute version of the story, the one that makes little girls want to dress up like pretty princesses. That story makes me want to hit myself in the head with a sledgehammer, also.”

We then shift perspective and hear the tale of twins Joringel and Jorinda. The pair are conceived magically by infertile parents from the blood of their mother after cutting her finger and making a wish. Joringel and Jorinda grow up, but where we would expect the twins would have the best childhood ever with a family made whole at last, they become afflicted in every way. Straight away, their father is so happy he dies the night they are born. Their neglectful mother remarries, giving them an evil stepfather. The cruelty shown to the twins by their parents is disturbing. And the twins, rather than growing into wonderful human beings, become twisted people.
Our gleefully unapologetic narrator leads us through the world of Grimm-inspired fairy tales, like The Juniper Tree, Cinderella, and Rumpelstiltskin telling us their story. Our emotionally crippled protagonists proceed to make terrible mistakes and then try to make reparation for them. Somewhere along the way, the author brings the characters to the classroom where the narrator (author/teacher?) is reading this story to his students. Things get very confusing. Yet, always, the story has a pulsing heart of truth that is its salvation. Gidwitz deals with the fall-out of abuse in a way that we never feel preached to. Kudos to the author for an ambitious project.

American author, Adam Gidwitz, was a teacher for eight years before deciding to write, which (according to his bio) ‘means he writes a couple of hours a day and lies on his couch staring at the ceiling the rest of the time.’ Since producing the first book in the Grimm series in 2010, Gidwitz hit the New York Times Bestseller list. The idea was unique and well-written. It was fresh, different, and shocking. I admired the author’s willingness to break the 4th wall, too. Always a risky move.
I think where it fell short for me was when the story shifted from the realm of a fictional story being told to students to the protagonist characters somehow crossing into the ‘real world,’ meeting the narrator, and so on. Whoa, it gave me vertigo. It was hard to keep clear on what was happening. However, kudos to Gidwitz that he kept me reading despite this setback.
The Grimm Conclusion bravely tackles life, death, and the intense emotions in between. It’s an impressive undertaking.
My rating: Three stars

Talk to you later.
Keep reading!
Yvette Carol
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“Because, you see, every triumph begins with failure.”—The Grimm Conclusion

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~ IWSG: Your Word for 2023? ~

It’s time for another group posting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group! Time to release our fears to the world or offer encouragement to those who are feeling neurotic. If you’d like to join us, click on the tab above and sign up. We post on the first Wednesday of every month. Every month, the organizers announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG Day post. Remember, the question is optional!!! Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!
Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG.

January 4 question – Do you have a word of the year? Is there one word that sums up what you need to work on or change in the coming year? For instance, in 2021 my word of the year was Finish. I was determined to finish my first draft by the end of the year. In 2022, my word of the year was Ease. I want to get my process, systems, finances, and routines where life flows with ease and less chaos. What is your word for 2023?
My sister and I had already decided this week that our word for 2023 would be synchronicity. I finished writing the rough draft for my next book at the beginning of last year and started working on editing it. Whereas in the past, I have poured decades of my life into editing my stories, there was a decided impulse this time to make things simpler. So halfway through 2022, I formed a writing group, The Fabulatores, and began editing my book through these sessions with other writers. I am nearly halfway through polishing the manuscript this way. We took a hiatus before Christmas and re-adjourn on January 20. I intend to complete running through the material with The Fabulatores this year and then turn it over to the professional proofreader and editor for the polishing steps.

Am I hopeful to publish before Christmas? I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t. But the difference now is I’m not willing to wreck myself. The biggest lesson I learned last time was that nearly all my ills related to the deadline I had set for publication. The moral of the self-publishing story is do not set unrealistic deadlines. Publishing a book takes waaaaaay longer than you think it will. Therefore, knowing that up front this time, I won’t make the publication deadline on a date set by wishful thinking. Trying to meet the date I had slated for the book release party nearly killed me in 2020 and made everyone around me miserable. My youngest son begged me not to write and publish another book because he didn’t want to go through it again. I felt sorry for my family, friends, and everyone who had to deal with me. I made my apologies and resolved that I would never self-publish another book, at least not in that working-around-the-clock way ever again.

The quandary was how to do it differently?
My general feeling about how the word synchronicity applies to my fiction writing in 2023 is this. From now on, I will try not to push my work to publishable standards in a vanishing amount of time but to allow for the production to happen more naturally. Not to run around like a headless chicken the whole time but to manage running everything else in my life calmly. It’s about relaxed, organic, sustained effort on the goal while maintaining an attitude of humility and patience. I want to allow time and grace for the synchronicity to happen. I’m hoping that if I keep the Ace up my sleeve of a flexible publication date, I can produce my next book without poisoning the goodwill of everyone else in the family! That’s the hope. Wish me luck!
How about you? What is your word for 2023?
Happy New Year, everyone!

Keep Writing!
Yvette Carol
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A great success is the cumulative effect of many small opportunities seized and wisely used. ~ Lord Wakefield

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~ Frankenstein’s Children ~

This is the final report from the local writers’ festival I attended in August. It took me a while to get through them all. The last session I attended at the festival was called Frankenstein’s Children. Acclaimed Kiwi Speculative Fiction writers, Elizabeth Knox & Lee Murray debated the influence of Frankenstein on modern literature. Knox is one of my favourite Kiwi authors. I’m a big fan of her Dreamhunter series, which I found transformative and compelling reading (reviewed long ago when I was a member of Goodreads). Knox has an ONZM, is an Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate, and won the Prime Minister’s Award of Fiction in 2019. She teaches at Victoria University and lives in Wellington, New Zealand with her family.

Lee Murray is a New Zealand science fiction, fantasy, and horror writer and editor. She is a multiple winner of the Bram Stoker Award and a twelve-time winner of the Sir Julius Vogel Award. She is a well-respected rising star.

It felt like a privilege to sit in on their live-streamed interview. I love hearing how other writers think and how they approach their craft.

Both authors were asked the same question about why they had chosen the spec. fiction genre. “From childhood, the things that most excited me had dragons and ghosts. My imagination went in that direction very early.” Elizabeth Knox said, “You have a reaction to the world, and you want to push against appearances and say, what if? How much do we live in the present; how much do we live in imagination? It’s a penetrating, all-time approach to the state of the human being.”
Lee Murray had done her research. “It was a term coined in the 1960s. It was called Speculative, and it’s developed over time. Ursula le Guin said, ‘It’s about possibilities.’ It’s also about myths and legends, asking what if, and looking at the human condition. It’s new perspectives. It’s changing all the time.”
What a great way of looking at it. Why did the two authors consider their work to be “Frankenstein’s Children”?

“Mary Shelley is considered the mother of spec fiction,” Murray explained. “She wrote Frankenstein at the age of 17 in the 1800s, writing about the resurrection of life with electricity before it was invented. It’s a book about othering. The monster wanted to belong. Shelley couldn’t be published because she was a woman. Spec Fiction is a place for women’s narratives. She was able to show she is intelligent.”
I found this thought-provoking.
Murray went on. “I wanted to write about what mattered to me and things that frighten me. It allowed me to write about things safely. Spec fiction is not this world. It’s not pointing at this person or thing. It gives us a little bit of distance.”
The author neatly skewered one of the reasons this genre drew me to it. I can tell my stories without having to worry about treading on any toes because it’s all make-believe. The genre is a forgiving umbrella. I’m fascinated to hear it is popular. Since the age of seventeen, I’ve been writing spec fiction, but whereas in the 80s publishers told me, ‘No one is interested in fantasy,’ now, suddenly, it’s cool. Or, as Murray said, “It’s the place to be.”

This reminds me of Neil Gaiman’s interview. When asked at a previous festival, did he expect to be where he is today in terms of career, Neil said he never expected to be famous. When he started, he worked in niche areas where no one in those days ever got famous. ‘You didn’t get famous in comic books, fantasy, or children’s writing—I thought I’d be out here with the weird kids. Then it spread out, and now we’re all the weird kids.’ That’s it exactly. Our strange little frowned-upon fantasy corner of the world is becoming more mainstream. Hey, it’s nice to have company.

I am also drawn to writing middle fiction, and maybe there’s a reason for that. Knox said, “There’s a period when young people are entering the world, and they’re refusing it.” I liked that. There’s an inherent kind of rebellion that comes naturally with being young or young-at-heart and trying things out, questioning the status quo. “I think we need fiction more than ever.”

Murray said, “Spec. fiction has a role in social change. It has real value. It’s the new black. It’s the place where the young people are.”
I agree. But you have to write with a lightness of touch. “As soon as you start hitting readers over the head with your message, they don’t want to read it.” Knox said, “I’m an avid reader. But I’m resistant to being told I have to do anything. You can’t step outside reality. Spec fiction is the world outside the consensual reality.”
That’s what makes it so exhilarating.
“I love fairies and Arthurian legends. Even a tragic ending can bring joy because of the shapeliness,” said Knox. “I’m changing my mind about hope. I think it belongs to the things that console us like fiction.”

Wow!
Do you see why Elizabeth Knox is one of my current writing heroes?
I’m proud to write Speculative Fiction or Frankenstein’s Children. It’s fun! How about you? Do you read it or write it?

Talk to you later.
Keep creating!
Yvette Carol

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Good stories are dangerous. Dangerous, anarchic, seductive. They change you, often forever…they challenge our vocabularies and our history. Sometimes they challenge our comfortable morality. And sometimes…they challenge our most basic assumptions. ~ Jane Yolen

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