pre-thanksgiving, 2010 & W1L 007: Write one leaf in which you say "Thank You."

Punctuality fail.

Convertible mittens: J. Crew, gift. Gryffindor necklace: Hot Topic. Gray crew-neck sweatshirt: Target. Lace-trim Peter Pan collar blouse: French Toast Uniforms. Skirt: secondhand, gift. Socks: Sock Dreams. Boots: Steven by Steve Madden.

I write stuff after the jump.

Extended "Thor" Trailer

Aweeeesome!

I've finally found it.

"It breaks a man to see what he misses."

I came really close to pinpointing the kind of 90s fashion I wanted to be channeling when I tried black and white florals with combat boots in June, but it wasn't until this outfit that I got a feel for just how frumpy I wanted to look. But, um, yeah. I think I got the frumpy down this time.

Scarf: H&M. Plaid shirt: Field & Stream via Costco. Skirt: cousin's, hand-me-down. Tights: generic. Boots: Steven by Steve Madden.

Minus scarf.

Plus scarf. As a testament to how old these pictures are, as I am writing this, the scarf has been cast off and is awaiting its fringe.

Review: Vampire Empire – Book 1: The Greyfriar by Clay & Susan Griffith

I had every reason not to even read The Greyfriar, let alone like it – heck one of the reasons is right in the title: Vampire. Now, I enjoyed Buffy The Vampire Slayer (for a few seasons at least) but the preponderance of Vampires in urban fantasy has completely turned me off to the subject matter (and I wouldn’t have called it something I was interested in even prior to that – being more of a scifi guy). Then there’s the hints of steampunk on the cover – a genre I’ve admitted having very little exposure to, and having mixed feelings about the only steampunk book I’ve previously read. And even though the cover is striking, I had put it aside thinking this just wasn’t the right kind of book for me.

Except… I started to see some preliminary reviews that indicated it was really good; something different. Suddenly, I wanted to see what all the noise was about – and besides, I could put it aside after a hundred pages or so if I didn’t really care for it. Only I couldn’t put the book down. I read it every spare chance I could get (which can admittedly be tough, especially in the middle of the holiday season).

It’s a story of an alternate Earth where about 150 years in the past the Vampire race rose up from their hiding and swept over parts of the world. Since that time, Vampires and Humans have been in a perpetual state of cold war – with skirmishes and plans on each side to eliminate the other. The Human race has been relegated to the equatorial region of the globe, because Vampires prefer the cold (and the dark, though they can survive in the light, it’s the heat they don’t like). The British Empire has remade itself in Alexandria, where there are plans to unite the heir to the throne, named Princess Adele, with a Senator from the second great power, the United States, in order to form one great empire and focus them all on their common enemy.

Adele is aboard one her family’s airships (a combination zeppelin/sailing ship of the air) observing the borderlands with the Vampires of the north, awaiting the arrival of her intended when the Vampires make a bold move and attack, intending to capture her. She’s rescued by the enigmatic Greyfriar, a kind of Zorro or Robin Hood well known by the humans both in the equatorial region and those who still find a way to live in the northern lands. Greyfriar has had success battling Vampires when few else have, but even he can’t keep Adele out of their hands for long when so many are massed against him.

Soon Adele finds herself in the very heart of the Vampire lands, in London, where she must contend with a Vampire Lord who no longer has all his facilities, and the Lord’s two sons who are both vying for power in their own ways. Cesare is the ambitious second son, not the heir but the one who has arranged this daring kidnapping – with the intent of gathering all the Vampire clans in a war against the humans (by forcing the humans to come rescue Adele, and thereby making a first-strike against the Vampires). The elder son, Gareth, has no interest in making war against the humans – in fact, he seems far more interested in learning about their culture from Adele.

And soon she’s learning a great many things about the Vampires and the humans of the north from him as well, turning on its ear many of the things humans have long taken for granted about Vampires. But will what she learns help her destroy the Vampires, or help her to stop the impending war between these races. Meanwhile, just as expected, her intended plans a daring strike into Vampire territory to retrieve her – a move bound to accelerate hostilities. At that moment, Greyfriar makes his move and rescues the girl himself from a deadly encounter with a Vampire Warmaster named Flay, a woman who has lost against Greyfriar many times and is just itching for the chance to finally kill him.

My description doesn’t do the book justice, and in fact probably doesn’t even cover half the book – though I can’t go too far without revealing some of the secrets, which are better left to the reader to discover on their own. Sure I guessed some of the plot points that were to come, but at other times the story turned in directions I never saw coming. I loved the ways in which Vampire lore was both incorporated and at times discarded – that lore is there, but some of it is just made up by humans and assumed to be true. At the same time, religion holds some power against the Vampires – in a kind of magically oriented way where churches are locations of a power of sorts, and certain humans are capable of wielding that power in different ways, including a cloak that Vampires can’t see through and lighting them on fire with just a touch.

But better than all that, the characters are such well rounded full bodied people, they all feel real and none fall into a one-dimensional trope of being just the hero or just the villain. This was a case where everything just came together really well, excellent world building to create this fantastical setting along with exceptional characters. This is the kind of writing that just makes reading such an enjoyable experience, where dialog sounds real and shades of grey permeate everyone. I felt like when I first discovered Sharon Shinn (the writing style feels very similar to me) or a host of other writers whose work I’ve gone on to follow for years – and like those times in the past, The Greyfriar is one the best books I’ve read this year; and I highly recommend it, even to the most skeptical of you out there. I personally can’t wait to read book 2.

Book Mills and the Inevitable Abuse

A few years ago I noticed a trend among some writers to "co-author" books. James Patterson is probably the most notorious in my mind. He went from writing two books or so a year to pumping out a new one every month; or so it seemed. I forget which of the co-written titles I picked up, but suffice it to say I thought it sucked-- on ice.



But fine. Whatever. I was pretty sure that the real deal involved unknown authors now penning books for Patterson and putting it under his name to sell books. Again, fine. As long as everyone is okay with the deal who am I to complain?



But this is a system that is bound to cause problems. How long can you stand to have someone else take credit for your work before you lose your mind? Writing is one of those things that's very personal, but it's also a career that has a lot to do with name recognition. Maybe the writers doing the work for Patterson usually work as ghost writers and don't mind the second-fiddle status of their writing careers. And, to be fair, it is a decent launching pad. But it appears that are some problems cropping up with this system.



Enter James Frey. You may remember Frey from his excruciatingly uncomfortable appearance on Oprah after the talk show host realized that Frey's memoir, "A Million Little Pieces" was more of a work of fiction than any kind of biography. I saw that interview and actually felt sorry for Frey at the time. Oprah, in full high-dudgeon, railed at Frey for a full hour. I remember thinking that Oprah seemed more offended that she was duped than anything else. Oh sure, she couched the haranguing in moral terms but ultimately it seemed more about her than Frey's artistic licence. As the diatribe ended I felt a little sorry for Frey. He exaggerated and passed fiction off as fact, but he had been embarrassed on live television -- on Oprah no less-- so the debt was paid. Right?



Well, maybe not.



How do I put this delicately? Once a douche always a douche? I shouldn't have said that, but I laughed at my own joke-- so it stays.



Frey, it seems, has entered the business of book-writing sweatshops. When I posted the trailer to "I Am Number Four" yesterday I didn't know who Pittacus Lore (the author of the book the movie is based on) was-- and I didn't really care. I assumed it was an attempt at a clever Lemony Snicket-y sounding name designed to catch the attention of YA readers. What didn't occur to me what that James Frey, the pseudo-memoir writer, could possibly be attached to the book. Who knew the guy wrote YA fantasy fiction? Well, turns out, he doesn't.



Thanks to Stephanie over at Scribbler to Scribe I was clued in to what Frey has been up to since his flogging on Oprah.



Frey, it appears, has no particular ethics when it comes to selling books. After getting nailed with his name attached to a book, Frey released another book that was openly sold as fiction and then mostly seemed to disappear. But Frey didn't really fade into obscurity. Instead he started a writer assembly-line known as Full Fathom Five (it's Shakespearian so it's clever). In a detailed piece over at the The New Yorker we're given a small glimpse into the mind of James Frey, and it's not really pretty. On the heels of his fall from grace Frey managed to convince himself that he didn't do anything wrong. That attaching the word "memoir" to a book doesn't mean it needs to be accurate or anything. It's really just a question of style as far as he's concerned.



Frey makes these statements at a seminar in front of students in the graduate writing program at Columbia University. They also just happen to coincide with a pitch to the young authors to come write for his company in a "collaborative" effort. Sold as being as being like the contracts Hollywood script writers sign, only adapted for publishing, the eager writers are told that Frey will offer them guidance and a really good chance at being published. And there's no question that Frey understands marketing. His ideas are cynical and generally meant to pander to the "Twilight" crowd but after the advent of reality-TV, can we really complain about the lack of quality in our entertainment these days? The guy is nothing if not a good observer of human nature and he knows there are certain types of books that sell-- and he's interested in selling them.



Frey also knows that young, fresh-out-of-college writers are energetic and up-to-their-ears in debt. So it's a no-brainer that dangling a paycheck and dreams of major-market success is going to bring aspiring writers in droves. And it did. One young author by the name of Jobie Hughes signed on the dotted line and was the real author of I Am Number Four. Here's where the story gets murky. Thanks to a confidentiality agreement Hughes can't really comment on what really happened after going to work for Frey. Frey claims that the story was his idea and that he mentored Hughes through the process of writing the book. Hughes, who isn't saying anything, appears to have ended up pretty disgruntled with the whole affair and has bowed out of further involvement with the project.



What we do know is that the contracts writers sign when they go work for Frey are really, really one-sided. Frey has all the control and all the ownership and the writers are pretty much stuck with whatever Frey tells them they're going to get. They are told they are going to get a percentage up front of the profits, but what isn't included in the contract is any kind of audit provision. So, basically, Frey can tell the writer what they earned and they have to take his word for it. Nice huh? Worse, Frey can put the work out under any name he wants to. It's clear that he doesn't really attach his own name to anything anymore so it's almost a given that he's going to use a pseudonym. There are even rumors that Frey is the pen behind the books authored by the mysteriously "off-the-grid" John Twelve Hawks. Frey is perfectly comfortable pocketing money under a phony name and what that means to these young writers is that they're doing a whole lot of work for very little recognition. I had never heard of Jobie Hughes before today-- had you?



The real rub here though is what do we, as consumers, do now that we know who the man behind the curtain is? Do we boycott the product? That'll show Frey, right? Well, maybe. But it may also hurt Hughes. Hughes might not get what he should get out of "I Am Number Four," but he is contracted to get something out of the book and the movie-- as he should. So it's a real dilemma if you're someone who is interested in seeing Frey have to show some accountability. I'm not a social crusader type to be honest. I guess I always worry about the unintended consequences. But I can't see any harm in shining a small light on Frey's antics because I guarantee he's not the only guy out there working the industry in this way.



The real lesson here is that young writers need to be careful before they sign up for something that sounds too good to be true. Heck, that holds true for almost anything really. Many jobs have confidentiality or no-compete clauses and it's easy to get sucked into the trap of signing on because everybody does it. But let me tell you kids, there are no shortcuts. And while I may not have liked her methods, Oprah did try to warn us about Frey. He's a sleazy character for sure. I won't hold my breath for his comeuppance-- Hollywood churns out his type by the ton. But I can make sure the truth behind "I Am Number Four" gets out there. I won't judge you for seeing the movie (hopefully it will be good for Hughes in the long run) so that's not really what this is about. What it's about is making sure young writers know who Frey is-- and know to watch out for him and others of his ilk.

Luckily, next year I'll be transferred to Pigfarts!

Even though I eventually decided on dressing like a Hogwarts student for the midnight showing of Harry Potter, I felt so guilty about it that I went to class the next day ready for Pigfarts. (Minus the oxygen tank and pressurized space suit.)

Trench coat: Foxrun, mother's, hand-me-down. Light blue thermal: Old Navy, gift. Pigfarts t-shirt: DIY (see sidebar). Jeans: Levi's. Plaid canvas shoes: Keds.

P. S. I honestly am not sure how many of you are here for clothes and how many of you are here for writing. Or for both. But I'll have some written stuff up later this or next week. Probably. I hope. In case you were wondering.

Short Story Giveaway!

It's short story time again! Thanks to the generous folks at Penguin Books I have some more great short story collections to pass on to one lucky winner.

Boondocks Fantasy; Edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Jean Rabe



From vampires in the Appalachians and leprechauns in the Smokies to mermaids in the Mississippi and bloodthirsty trolls in an Alabama trailer park the South makes a unique setting for the 20 stories in this anthology of redneck vampires, werewolves, wizards, elves, and other creatures.



Featuring original stories by Gene Wolfe, Timothy Zahn, Chris Pierson, Mickey Zucker Reichert, Steven Savile, Elizabeth A. Vaughan, Jay Lake, Anton Strout, and many more.

Love and Rockets; Edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Kerrie Hughes



Space...the final frontier. Or is it? Many say there's no frontier more forbidding than a romantic relationship between a man and a woman. But what if one's a human, and the other's an alien? Here is an original collection of space opera stories where authors take love (unrequited or not), on a spaceship, space station, or planetary colony, and add enough drama, confusion and mayhem to ensure that the path to true love-or short-term infatuation-is seldom free of obstacles.



Just add your information the form below to enter (all information is guaranteed confidential and will be discarded once contest ends) and I will randomly pick one winner by Thursday December 30th. No multiple entries please-- all multiple entries will be discarded. Open everywhere.



Good luck!



**Contest Closed**