The 2009 Stoker Awards Final Ballot has been released:
Superior Achievement in a Novel
Audrey’s Door, Sarah Langan (Harper)
Patient Zero, Jonathan Maberry (St. Martin’s Griffin)
Quarantined, Joe McKinney (Lachesis)
Cursed, Jeremy Shipp (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
Superior Achievement in a First Novel
Breathers, S. G. Browne (Broadway Books)
Solomon’s Grave, Daniel G. Keohane (Dragon Moon Press)
Damnable, Hank Schwaeble (Jove)
The Little Sleep, Paul Tremblay (Henry Holt)
Superior Achievement in Long Fiction
Dreaming Robot Monster, Mort Castle (Mighty Unclean)
The Hunger of Empty Vessels, Scott Edelman (Bad Moon)
The Lucid Dreaming, Lisa Morton (Bad Moon)
Doc Good’s Traveling Show, Gene O’Neill (Bad Moon)
Superior Achievement in Short Fiction
“Keeping Watch”, Nate Kenyon (Monstrous: 20 Tales of Giant Creature Terror)
“The Crossing of Aldo Ray”, Weston Ochse (The Dead That Walk)
“In the Porches of My Ears”, Norman Prentiss (Postscripts 18)
“The Night Nurse”, Harry Shannon (Horror Drive-In 7/09)
Superior Achievement in an Anthology
He Is Legend: An Anthology Celebrating Richard Matheson, Christopher Conlon, ed. (Gauntlet)
Lovecraft Unbound, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Dark Horse)
Poe, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Solaris)
Midnight Walk, Lisa Morton, ed. (Dark House)
Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection
Martyrs and Monsters, Robert Dunbar (DarkHart)
Got to Kill Them All and Other Stories, Dennis Etchison (Cemetery Dance)
A Taste of Tenderloin, Gene O’Neill (Apex)
In the Closet, Under the Bed, Lee Thomas (Dark Scribe)
Superior Achievement in Non-fiction
Writers Workshop of Horror, Michael Knost (Woodland)
Cinema Knife Fight, L.L. Soares & Michael Arruda (Fearzone)
The Stephen King Illustrated Companion, Bev Vincent (Fall River)
Stephen King: The Non-Fiction, Rocky Wood & Justin Brook (Cemetery Dance)
Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection
Double Visions, Bruce Boston (Dark Regions)
North Left of Earth, Bruce Boston (Sam’s Dot)
Barfodder, Rain Graves (Cemetery Dance)
Chimeric Machines, Lucy A. Snyder (Creative Guy)
This is not the picture I intended to take, but these things change. Last December my daughter was getting close with a little girl and on impulse I filled a little box like this with little things–a a candy scented stick of lip gloss, a rubber ball filled with water and glitter, a glittery bracelet–and gave it to her after school on her birthday. I felt a little odd about it, because I wasn’t sure the girls were at the point that they would be exchanging gifts, and we live in an area where lots of people can’t afford big things for their kids, so public shows of gifting are rather uncomfortable and unpredictable.
Saturday night I learned my little box was the only present the little girl got on her birthday.
So yeah, I’m angry. I’m angry that I didn’t give more. I’m angry that her parents didn’t get her anything (one of them works at a thrift store and gets a huge discount. She could have gotten something, even used is better than nothing!)
But that’s not where it stops. It gets worse. Worse and I just cannot go into more on a public forum, where someone might find this and get angry. Because right now a little girl’s health depends on her having a place to stay. Maybe her physical health, but definitely her mental health. And I’m caught between probably getting taken advantage of and leaving a child alone in a seriously crappy situation. So I’m angry at the people putting her there. I’m angry that I can’t give her more and I’m angry that we seem to be expected to take on the responsibility.
Sometimes both “hats” (I hate that term, but it common and easy to understand) are hard to wear. So from the mind of someone caught between in a rather public way, let me offer a few words.
Reviewers are #1 READERS. They are your audience, they are just vocal (and I hope) well-read members of your audience. Almost all the reasons I had for becoming a reviewer revolved around being a reader. I wanted to expand my horizons, record my thoughts of what I read, contribute to the reader-sphere and figure out why I liked the books I liked. Even my quest to build my own audience base comes down to me wanting to relate to readers.
In my opinion the best authors are widely read.
Whichever side of the author/reviewer divide you fall on you can (I hope) understand why we read. The love there of. The search for awesome, satisfying fiction wherever there’s a page and two covers. It’s a voracious desire, even if our reading habits don’t keep up. So if you understand that, you likely also understand the utter disappointment of a book that doesn’t deliver.
Readers ALWAYS bring something personal to a book they’re reading because they have chose that book for THEIR entertainment or THEIR information. If it doesn’t sound even the least bit interesting you cannot get a reader to pick up your book. Readers cannot forget who they are, especially since by the nature of reading it takes a period of time to complete the book and we do not live lives that allow for sitting down and reading the whole book at once. For example it takes me 6-20 hours of reading for me to finish a book and this is considered fast reading. I can finish a book in a day, if it is engaging and I do very little else. So by the nature of the activity there will be interrupting. The book will get put aside for minutes, hours or days. The reader will stop reading to live their lives and as such books simply do not sweep people out of their identities and into the book. Readers can suspend disbelief, but they cannot suspend their own opinion and personality in order to assume the one the author wishes. At best readers can eavesdrop and sympathize. We can connect, but not become.
While I believe that there are no taboos in fiction when you get into offensive and argue-triggering ideas, concepts and events an author must convince a reader that there is point, a purpose, to the story they are being told. I read and reviewed Pain Killers by Jerry Stahl, which was absolutely filled with racism, sexism, addict, hate speech and other highly offensive material. Like Natural Born Killers and most Tarantino films the story is out of control to begin with. It’s dangerous, almost a parody of human behavior at it’s worst. It’s Jerry Springer, with a point, completely over the top and almost a farce of real life. The point is that it’s sadly not an inaccurate reflection of humanity, but by making these things part of an overwhelming narrative the author makes the statement that such human behavior is a over the top farce in and of itself. Now suddenly this highly offensive narrative had a point–making fun of such extremes even as it uses them as tools in telling a greater story.
In short if you go this route, or that of high sex, high blood or gore, it should have a point vital to the storytelling itself. Even Lolita had a point. the best horror stories might be violent and gory, but the the gore isn’t the end all, it’s the dressing up of the point, and in the great novels the gore, like the language is used to manipulate the reader into believing certain things vital to pulling them into the story. The storytelling should not be effective without the use of racism, abuse, gore or sex (Think Palahniuk’s Choke, where the sex is absolutely vital to the telling of the story) if you are going to use it in your book.
As a reader I have a huge problem with romances wherein the hero rapes the heroine. Rape is not attractive. It is not romantic. I cannot stand romance books where the hero rapes the heroine (or vice versa).
However when I read horror the rules change completely, because horror is supposed to make you uncomfortable. A relationship between a heroine and hero that includes rape and beating and even drugging would be acceptable to me in a horror book because it could very easily be a tool to make me feel terribly uncomfortable.
That leads into my next point; Because readers always bring themselves into the story readers will always go into a story with expectations. Some come from the genre (I expect horror to make me feel uncomfortable, scared or creeped out, for example), or from a knowledge of the author’s previous books (you can see an example of my own expectations from an author’s previous books in my review of Prey by Rachel Vincent, where I had to confess that I expected the series to lose its bite as readers got more attached to the characters), or from recommendations they’ve received from friends or online. This will affect a reader’s experience as well–and worse you can’t control this.
On to disappointment. No matter what the reason–the story not being what they wanted, the storytelling not being good, technical writing problems, or even just a story being good, but no spectacular–readers hate to be disappointed. Very rarely does someone buy a book wanting to hate it. Even books that have bad reviews might have elements that some readers like. Some readers literally cannot get enough of certain things (vampires, zombies, love stories) and will read and probably enjoy almost every book with those elements that they can get their hands on. Which is something I keep in mind when reviewing a book I didn’t personally enjoy. Rare is the book that no one can enjoy.
But readers are not against you. We want to enjoy your book. We want it so much we try to push aside ourselves aside to enjoy your tale. (This is suspension of disbelief. We know CSI is NOT accurate, but we pretend it is so we can enjoy the story they are telling, not the sheer heavy details of accuracy. No one wants pure accuracy in speculative fiction, because then fact checking becomes more important than storytelling.) It’s upsetting for us when we don’t enjoy your work, and yes, we do wonder if it’s just us. It’s a reviewer’s job to analyse:
1. Do I like it–Yes or no.
2.Why or why not?
3. Where are the bits that cause me to like/not like it?
4. Are they because I couldn’t connect with this story/these characters or are they do to poor writing? Or both?
5. Would other people like it? Why or why not? And, what kind of people would like it?
6. (Not all reviewers consider this one, but critics do) What value does this book has in the greater context the genre, the author’s career, the current state of the world and literature?
Most books I read are good, but not spectacular. My top complaint is not being able to connect with a lead character. This is completely typical of reviewers, readers, agents and editors. We all do this because we love it. We read because we love it. (For the most part) We are not your enemies, or your opposites. There should be no professional divides. We ARE your audience. We are your street team. Every single reader is not just a sale, they are a potential word of mouth recommender.
If the reviewer liked or disliked the book, if it horrified or amused them, caused them to stay up late or throw the book at the wall, that is down to their personal experience of the book. They have made the effort to place themselves in an open state of mind that was receptive to the authors imaginings.
Another Hidden Risk of Obesity article- Studies show even being a little bit obese increases the liklihood that doctors will view you as a non compliant patient and misdiagnose you, before factors like medicine and test being less effective and some conditions being harder to diagnose are worked in.
Pets for Vets program–because both need help and pets have been proven to reduce stress and improve mental health.
Utah passes bill making “intentional, knowing, or reckless act” that cause miscarriage illegal.–I’m so mixed on this one because it could possibly be used to punish women for miscarriage (by vindictive spouses or the religious right or whoever), but trying to have a miscarriage on purpose (the bill comes after a woman supposedly paid someone to make her miscarry) is bad bad bad.
…but then the author did it for me. This is exactly why you should NOT EVER snap back at a reviewer. There just is no way to do it without looking like you’re throwing a fit.
My review (which I absolutely stand behind):
“…She needed a man. Hell, maybe if she bothered to drop down below 220 lbs she might find one. That, and she’d have to not talk. Basically she’d have to become an anorexic mute and then she could possibly attract the attention of a blind man with no sense of smell.”
Want another excerpt?
“Oh, and this book is self published, so there will be typos. Oh yes, there will be typos. Think of them as easter eggs. Happy hunting!”
Under is the tale of two bad tempered middle aged office workers who are one small town’s only defense against cannibal creatures who are getting ready for a feast. Quinn tells the truth, there are plenty of typos to “hunt” for, mixed in with formatting errors, like words printed on top of each other. (Note: This refers to the original edition. In the revised edition these are supposedly fixed.) There’s plenty of violence and profanity, along with sexist and racist comments and female characters who are lined up like pigs for a slaughter.
Jacob, the lead character, is very hard to relate to, and framing him not with some kind of amateur knowledge that saves the day, but instead with a load of cops and state troopers who are bumbling idiots and jerks leads to this book feeling like a poorly spun Rambo fantasy. The lack of editing, the -ist jokes and complete stereotyping of every character who isn’t the hero leads to Under reading like a first draft, or first novel attempt that’s not quite there.
Horror is no longer and excuse for sexism, racism and homophobia and self publishing isn’t an excuse for typos and a complete lack of consideration for the money readers might spend on a book. Take your chances on this one, if you wish, but be forewarned it doesn’t have much to offer.
And the public response from the author from GoodReads, available here (behind the cut):
The Crow remake (Only “It’s not a remake, it’s relaunch.” ORlly? Then why are they casting for Eric Draven? Seriously, leave this one alone.)
This one I am utterly upset about: Repo Men the movie. It’s an action version of Repo: The Genetic Opera, which is a gorgeous, poignant piece of work, that sadly only has a cult following. The thing is, I would probably love this movie (it looks a lot like “The Island” as well, which I liked. What can I say, I love dark science fiction.) if I wasn’t hung up on this irritation that it’s so very close to another, overlooked movie. Now, if someone more enlightened that I (and the posters on IMDB) can tell me that both are reworkings, or that the Repo:GO people were given a nod or something then maybe I could give this one a chance. (No really, please, please, please make me feel better about this movie if you can. I want to because I do so love the concept.)
Ahem. So apparently there’s a lot of clueless going around lately. Most obvious has been this year’s snow. We have had a ton. Not a record, but more than I remember having with one exception in the time I’ve lived here. Also not long ago the news made the statement that all fifty states had snow in the air or on the ground in a 24 hour period.
Also, the snow itself:
Yeah, totally clueless to mere things like gravity.
It is NEVER a good idea to snap back at a reviewer for a review of your book that you didn’t like. Hmm, perhaps I’m not getting my point across.
It is NEVER a good idea to snap back at a reviewer for a review of your book that you didn’t like.
Never.
If they are wrong, let it go. If they insulted you, let it go. If you think they had an agenda, or didn’t even read the book, or missed the point–Let. It. Go.
Rant in private, to friends. But for gods’ sakes do not email them an insulting letter, and do not start a public thread insulting and ridiculing them.
Because, are you listening? A review is an opinion. It may have weight, it may not. And it’s not because you might piss off the reviewer, it’s because you will expose your inner fucktard and like racist slurs and private porn tapes that inner fucktard is what people what people will recognize you for.
You will reveal that you have no ability to deal with opinions about the work you put up for public sale, and therefore public discourse, that aren’t positive. You will reveal that you have no real respect for the opinion of the reader and no drive to write and publish your best work. Instead it ALWAYS comes off as if the author is a spoiled brat throwing a fit because they didn’t get the praise they deserve, and it looks this way even if the reviewer is wrong. (Except, I refer you back to the above paragraph: A review is an opinion. “Wrong” is not an easy thing to assign to an opinion.)
P.S. Also, many many reviewers and review sites already have a no self published books policy. You’re giving more people a reason add one.
P.P.S. Oh yeah, and emailing me nasty emails means instead of reviewing your book and moving on, I’ll start warning people about you, your work and your nasty email.
