RReview: Moneyball by Michael Lewis

Link: Moneyball

Ranking: Buy it Now!

Comments: Great novel, better than either Big Short or Blindside I thought. Lewis likes writing about people with foresight against conventional institutions, maybe one day he'll write about early Ebook adapters? Heh.

RReview: The Alchemist in Shadows by Pierre Pevel

Link: The Alchemist in Shadows

Ranking: Wait for Paperback

Comments: The Three Musketeers with dragons. Suffers from apparent middle-book-itis but still a nice break from usual medieval fantasy time period.

RReview: The Dragon's Path by Daniel Abraham

Link: The Dragon's Path

Ranking: Borrow it from a Rich Friend

Comment: Disappointing as I loved his Long Price Quartet. World was blah. Plot was blah. Characters were blah. The dreaded words, "I don't care."

RReview: Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey

Link: Leviathan Wakes

Ranking: BUY IT NOW!!!

Comment: Comes out June 15th. Great Space Jockey/Noire Mystery hybrid.

What is the Betrothal?

I've been writing since I was a wee young age but my first shot at actually completing a novel was at 13. As with all things at 13...it didn't go well. But I kept trying over the years. After a period of WHEEL OF TIME and STAR WARS fan fiction through my teens and a pair of brilliant fantasy novels I wasn't skilled enough for at the time but will one day get written, I entered college and began what was my first real novel, though technically Number 5: THE FIRST LIE.

THE FIRST LIE sucked. It was also a fantasy novel and the most cliche fantasy novel you ever wanted to see, mostly because I thought I was going to get cute and really make it half satire. Only my satire ended up being the normal tropes. There were elves and dragons. THE FIRST LIE was bad. 200k words of bad. 200k words and it wasn't even finished! But it kept me busy during college. You will never see THE FIRST LIE. The only copy in existence is guarded by an army of fire-ants and sits surrounded by a moat of honey.

Then I graduated into the worst jobs market since the Great Depression, the year 2008. Unemployed but with awesome writing skills I decided I was going to get published somehow.

Or at least finish my first novel. Looking at how to do this I came up with three novels. One would be vampireish since everything vampireish was selling. One would be a fan fiction to pump up the grassroats in an attempt to pull a Cassandra Claire. The last was going to be a comedy, since the world SUCKED at the moment and I thought people could use some cheer.

BOOK NUMBER 6: THE BETROTHAL OR HOW I SAVED ALAN EDWARDS FROM 40 YEARS OF HELL.

My first finished book. A simple comedy with lots of laughs, technically a simple love story as well, but with everything flipped. A geek instead of a hero. Woman who can kick ass. Trying to destroy a wedding instead of making a wedding happen. Self-reflexivity in spades.

It's my 'funny little story'. I like it. It's not the best I'll ever do, not even close, but it's good enough to go Indie with as a beginning.

Now if people will only start buying it!

Get it now.

I'm going to Review books

I've tried any number of times to be a good enough person to review the books I read. Since I read about 100 a year, this is a pretty sizable task, and since I hate sizable tasks that don't have to do with writing my own books, I've decided the time has come to simplify the scope of what I plan on doing. No long reviews will be henceforth. No flowery descriptions to try to get you to buy something. SIMPLE. That's the word.

So...my simple scale:

BUY IT NOW!!!

Wait for Paperback

Borrow it from a Rich Friend

Stay Far Far Away

I might also add a single sentence as comment...ooooooooh.

First up = The Alcatraz Series by Brandon Sanderson. First book available HERE.

Ranking = Borrow it from a Rich Friend

Comment: More for tweens than teens.