Tag Archives: Reading

Thirty Minute Reader Double Header, Part Deaux

  By Greg | May 10, 2013 - 1:47 pm |
4 Comments

Welcome to another Live the Story Thirty Minute Reader!

30 Minute Reader

30 Minute Reader

I typically only do one of these a week…

Hey! Who’s laughing back there? Todd?

As I was saying, This week is a Thirty Minute Reader double header, and this is part Two. Greg is going to tell us about his second half-hour with Catie Rhodes’ Forever Road.

ForeverRoadCover_

Thanks for being here today, Greg. Take it away!

Thanks Greg. Continuing with Forever Road for my second reading, I’m actually a bit unsure of what to say about it. I tend to read slowly for these segments, which lets me enjoy the story for its sake, while noticing things like grammar, realistic dialog, and… you know, stuff like that. All I thought when I had to stop reading this time was, “Damn! This is really good!” I know, eloquent, right?

Y’all probably know I grew up in the South, drinking lots of liquid, Tea-flavored sugar. Maybe that’s why I’m so caught up with Peri Jean and her friends and family. They all seem so real to me, their language, attitudes, situations, all of it could be taken from my memoir, if I had one. But I know its more than that. I’m not trying gush, or be a fan-boy, but I think we have a rising star in our midst.

So, on with the story. The action ramped up a notch in this reading, beginning with Peri Jean going to Rae’s house and…

Hang on. If you are reading, or plan to read Forever Road, THERE BE SPOILERS HERE!

So skip down to the comments and ask for a copy, and if I have any money left in my sock drawer, I’ll buy you one.

You’ve been warned!

…finds her dead. I know the girl can see spirits, so I’m waiting for Rae’s snarky ghost to pop up and start mouthing off, but No! Peri runs outside and gets her butt kicked the killer… Well, we assume it was the killer. This is a mystery, so I’m not taking that for granted just yet. She gets knocked out and wakes up with her meemaw and some hot, Bayou-imported lawman that Peri gets a bit flustered over.

The great part about this scene is all of the new people we get to meet. There’s the sheriff, the doctor, the new cop/potential love interest, an old school acquaintance, and we see enough of them to help us breath the small-town air a little more, and to build on the Peri-Jean mythology. There’s also some more talk of the lost family treasure, and we wrap up with the new cop thinking Peri’s friend Chase might be the murderer because of her.

The story is getting complex with so many characters to follow, but it doesn’t seem complex. Catie’s tells the story with such skill, it’s easier to follow than a stabbed rat on crutches. You know what I mean, right? One more thing worth mentioning is the humor. Blended throughout all of this action and drama are lines that had me howling with laughter. If you are reading Forever Road while drinking, be prepared to nasally distribute your beverage over everything in front of you. Gosh, I hope it’s nothing too hot or carbonated. That’s gonna burn.

Chime in below if you are reading along. What have I missed? Am I wrong? I never am, but I’ll listen to your thoughts before disabusing you of them. Remember to ask for a copy in the comments if you’d like one for free (and make sure I know how to contact you, or giving it to you might be tough).

Since you’re here, and are reading about Catie’s book, she did a couple of reviews on her blog today, so hop on over and take a look!

A Thirty Minute Reader Space-out

  By Greg | May 8, 2013 - 12:46 pm |
10 Comments

Part One: That Ghoul Ava.

That Ghoul Ava 

30 Minute Reader

30 Minute Reader

If you missed the Thirty Minute Reader last week,  I’m reading That Ghoul Ava and the Queen of the Zombies, without reading Ava’s 1st book 1st. I don’t feel like I’m playing catch-up, at all, and Mr. Brown (if I may?) deserves his propers for craftsmanship. Particularly for a second book, he gives us character background without dumping it Carrie-style over our heads, or beginning with a Batman-style “When we last left our hero…,” wrap-up. It’s smooth, natural, and entertaining.

We learn about Ava’s past through well-timed “space-outs,” as something reminds her of that time when… (which reminds me of my tenth grade English class, when I wrote the assignment instructions in shorthand, and later couldn’t figure out what the hell I was supposed to do. How could I? I don’t even know shorthand. This turned my simple journal assignment into a short story about how I was recruited by a secret government agency… Damn! Now I’m doing it, too! I’ll let you get back to my blog post) …jelly donuts and camel incisors everywhere! It was most unexpected.

Ava usually snaps out of her mental diversions just in time to catch the last few words of an important sounding sentence. It’s an entertaining way to give us just enough info to keep us guessing, while developing Ava into a character we can identify with.

No, I won’t say ‘with whom we can identify.’ Get over yourself!

I was completely immersed in the scene at VooDoo Donuts with the ‘maple syrup brunette.’ I’ve never been to one of these shops, but I felt the atmosphere so clearly, that I almost have phony memories of the place. Perfectly done!

The flavor of the book’s humor is coming through a lot stronger now, too (What can I say? Sometimes I’m a bit slow).I even re-read it from the beginning with an eye for things I might have missed. I have a great appreciation for subtle humor, and That Ghoul Ava delivers. It’s an aromatic blend of inside jokes (80’s pop-culture references, chapter titles, even some sentence structures cleverly designed for comedic delivery (Crap! He did that on purpose, right?)), and classical comedic structures that remind me of my favorite Brit-com, Miranda.

If you’ve ever seen it, you’ll know some of the funniest scenes in the TV show are when Miranda turns directly to the camera to give us a confused shrug, or to whisper “Someone help me,” to the audience. Visually, it’s hilarious. In a book, it’s a risky tactic, easily fumbled, but Todd nailed it.

If you are reading along, this brings us to Chapter 6. If you aren’t reading along, you should be! I’ll even buy you a copy of the book (while my budget lasts). Just ask for one in the comments, let me know what reader/format you prefer, and give me the email addy where I can gift it.

I’m doing a double-header this week, so watch for Part 2 of the Thirty Minute Reader on Catie Rhodes’ Forever Road this Friday.

I know she does her Friday’s Bitter End posts then. Sheesh! Can’t you DVR it?

I’ll do one more TMR post on each book, and then wrap up each with a full review and a pretty pink bow. Or a soggy Band-Aid. Whichever fits best. We’ll see ;-)

For those of you reading along, have I missed anything? What’s your favorite part of the story so far?

*Thanks to those of you who let me know your comments didn’t show up on the last two posts. I apologize for the glitch. I think it is fixed now, but if you have any trouble, let me know, and I’ll get it taken care of right away. Thanks.*

 

 

The Thirty Minute Reader: Now with 100% More Ghoul Bits

  By Greg | April 25, 2013 - 8:05 am |
3 Comments
30 Minute Reader

30 Minute Reader

Good morning, class. I want everyone to take a minute and copy down these definitions. Get comfy with them. There WILL be a test!

[notice]There will also be Spoilers.[/notice]

 

Definitions:

genre  

/ˈZHänrə/

Noun

A category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter

 

ghoul  

/go͞ol/

Noun

An evil spirit or phantom, esp. one supposed to rob graves and feed on dead bodies

 

My favorite fiction genres–to read–are horror and fantasy. I know what to expect when I pull a fantasy novel off the shelf, because all fantasy novels follow certain rules, as do all novels of any particular genre. Even though I have certain expectations, I also expect to be surprised. I want to see things that I wouldn’t have thought of if I were to write that book.

See how I’m using today’s words in a sentence?

One of the things I loved about Zomblog, my 1st TW Brown experience, was that it followed the rules of its genre, and gave me what I expected to find: a scary, gory, thrill-fest of people killing zombies and zombies killing people. I certainly didn’t expect to find such a real, engrossing, fleshed-out (sorry) world  in a “zombie” book, nor did I expect to find the stories told in such a creative and original way. Mr. Brown met and surpassed my expectations of being surprised.

This brings us to today’s 30mR. I’m fan of TW Brown. I enjoy his writing style and sense of humor, and while we’ve never had a beer or gone hunting together, I get the impression he’s a decent guy.  He’s probably pretty smart, too, for not boozing it up and heading into the woods with heavily armed strangers, too.

If you’re reading this, Todd, just delete those last dozen, or so, email invitations to go hunting. Someone must have um… hacked my email account. Yeah.

Anyway, I was quite eager to dig into That Ghoul Ava. I’ve read zombie books. I’ve read vampire books and ghost books, and various monster books, too. I’ve never read a Ghoul book, though. Plus, this one is supposed to be funny! It’s a new path for Mr. Brown, and I had to see how he pulled it off.

Guess what? It’s just what I expected. There’s an undead character that eats the dead. Guess what, else? Beyond that basic expectation, this book is nothing like I imagined it would be. Bonus.

[warning]Test Time![/warning]

Think back to the definition of ghoul, and picture what a ghoul’s home would look like. I’m thinking nasty, wet, muddy, with bones sticking out of the dirt walls of the burrow it dug beneath Uncle Lucy’s fresh grave. Poor Uncle Lucy!

Can’t you just picture our imaginary ghoul feasting on Uncle Lucy for days, ripping off his lacy, yellow church crown to get to his delicious, but probably atrophied brain? Yeah, me too. He loved that hat.

Let me be the one to tell you, you are dead wrong! Ava (spoiler: she’s a ghoul) lives in a posh house with a human roommate. It’s all cool, because Ava doesn’t eat the living. She’s a ghoul, not some nasty, brainless zombie. She drives a shiny new red corvette. She can apparently eat an entire corpse in a matter of minutes, thanks retractable claws and what she calls “shark mouth.” Sometimes these morphic traits have a mind of their own, shredding her cute socks and shoes when she’s startled. She also has wicked sensitive hearing and can see the dark. She spray-tans, and is fashion conscious.

I know. Not what I pictured, at all.

Who says a ghoul can’t keep being a girl? Not me! The humor, so far, isn’t “laugh-out-loud comedy. It’s subtle. Witty. It’s the way Ava is still very much like any one of us in how she thinks, the creature comforts she enjoys, and the need to have a job to pay her bills. But then she has the super-human senses, the shark-mouth and claws, the sound-proof basement where she eats dead people, the witches and vampires who visit, and the immortality. Aside from those things–oh, and probably the corvette–she could be your neighbor.

This is the sort of creative approach I’ve come to expect from Mr. Brown. He takes something we think we know pretty well, and shows it to us in a way we’d have never imagined. That is to say, he always and never gives me what I expect to find in his books.

That’s not confusing, is it?

Thirty minutes in, I’m totally digging That Ghoul Ava, and if you want to participate in my cheesy grave-digging puns, just ask for a copy of the book in the comments! I’m still giving away a copy of That Ghoul Ava or Catie Rhodes’ Forever Road, too.  If you know someone who’d like one of these eBooks, send them here.

Finally, if you didn’t know, Todd is raising funds to support Camp NaNoWriMo, and as I write this has reached $921 out of his lofty $1000 goal. It’s a great way to support young writers, so if you can swing it, drop them a few bucks. You’ll feel happy for doing it, and will probably win the lottery.

 

What expectations to you have when reading in your favorite genre? Do you like to see the rules take a beating, or should the story keep its arms and legs inside the car at all times?

 

Here’s the Free Stuff:

You can ask in the comments for a copy of:

That Ghoul Ava, by TW Brown, or

Forever Road, by Catie Rhodes

&

My book, Apocalypstick is now free on Amazon.com, iTunes, and most other online retailers.

My novel Children of the Plague is hungry for reviews. If you are willing to write one, I’ll give you a copy for free.

Launch Event Blast at Beach Book Blast Launch Event!

  By Greg Carrico | August 16, 2012 - 11:06 am |
5 Comments

The following is a transcript of the tragic broadcast announcement of the Beach Book Blast Launch event, that you Won’t see on the cable news channels. It was never aired. Read for yourself, and see what “They” are trying to hide.

begin transcript:

 

Greg's Head

Greg Carrico

I’m Greg Carrico, reporting from Live the Story’s New York headquarters. Something Amazing is happening today. I’m told that a small group of bloggers will be launching twelve authors into orbit! This is breaking news, so I’ll fill you in as I get it. All I know is that NASA spokesmen are saying… Hang on… Sorry about that. NASA has been alarmingly quiet on this. My people in the field are on top of this, and we’ll be bringing this story to you as it unfolds. Stay tuned for a live feed from… Well, when I find out, I’ll let you know. This is Greg Carrico, and I’ll be back with more in a moment from Live the Story.

 #

News is trickling in on this odd story, so let me bring you up to date with a few corrections. The authors being launched into space today are all, in fact, part of that mysterious group called Indies. Earlier, I said that there were twelve, and I’ve just been told that there are now a full baker’s dozen; that’s thirteen for those of you who’ve never seen me at a bakery. Oh, stand by. More data are coming in right now.

#

Well, this is a big announcement! My PIFs

A PIF working on the story

(People in the Field, keep up!) have confirmed that the bloggers responsible for this launch have no affiliation with NASA, and are part of something called WG2E, which is, I believe, and acronym for We Get 2 Eat. I don’t know what a space launch of authors has to do with food, but stay with us, and we’ll find out together.

 #

 Well, this is what I look like when I’m embarrassed. I have to apologize for a couple of factual errors that I shared this morning. Our fact checking PIF has called in sick, and with breaking stories, we do run the risk of making a few mistakes. The WG2E are not a group of eating contest winners, as we first thought, though some of their members may be. They are the Writer’s Guide to ePublishing, a group of writers dedicated to eradicating lewd puppy photos

Forced into a life of depravity by a Book Blaster!

from the internet. Sorry, bear with…

 (What? So none of this crap is right? I’ve been up here saying all of this insane sh… huh? The Mic is still on? That’s great! This better never see the light of… Huh? Live!?!)

 Sorry about that folks! You just heard my, uh, producers practicing for a variety show skit. Boy, are they funny? Stay tuned for more!

#

Aaaaaand, Back! Let me apologize once more to everyone for the very slight factual errors we reported today. I have now confirmed the following:

There are Fifteen(ish) authors, belonging to the radical Beach Book Blast subgroup of the WG2E Street Terror Team subgroup of the Writer’s Guide to ePublishing subgroup of the DD Scott Galactic publishing empire, and they are launching their brand new explosive books of various genres into geosynchronous orbit above Manhattan NY in a group event at the Beach Book Blast blog, on the Book Blast Facebook page, and on Twitter using the #BeachBookBlast tag. It will happen this evening from 8PM until 11PM New York time.

I understand that so the greatest number of people will witness this unprecedented attack, the public is being enticed to participate with ‘door prizes’ at the Facebook page, and a raffle for some awesome prizes, including a new type of WMD called a Kindle Fire at the blog.  They will be launching their books with the new RG2E-168.b rocket, and… Oh, good grief. Hang on.

(What do you mean there’s no freaking rocket? What next? They aren’t radical terrorists? But you said Indie Authors!)

Breaking news: I’m quitting my job as a newscaster. Get the real story at these other (legitimate) blogs and websites:

(How did All of these other blogs get this story right and I got this mess of fairy tales?? You’re all fired! Turn the Mic off!)

end transcript.

For the Real story:

1.      Visit the Beach Book Blast Launch Event page for the real scoop, a lot of fun, and prizes that you’ll actually like!

 

2.      Like the Beach Book Blast Facebook Page so you can join the

 

3.      Facebook page Launch Event and get door prizes

 

4.      Join the conversation on Twitter leading up to tonight’s launch by following #BeachBookBlast

 

5.      Visit Rhonda Hopkins’ and Kristine Cayne’s very amazing blogs for Q&A with the authors

 

6.      Visit the Authors’ pages and our WG2E and RG2E blogs (win free copies of the Launch books at the RG2E):

Alicia and Roy Street

Dale Amidei

Debra Burroughs

L.C. Giroux

Liz Jasper

Liz Matis

Stacey Joy Netzel

Natalie G. Owens

Janice Palko

Christina Routon

Sheila Seabrook

Lily Silver

*lizzie starr

Kiru Taye

Tamara Ward

Thirty Minute Reader, The Return!

  By Greg Carrico | April 17, 2012 - 10:41 am | ,
2 Comments

Hi there! Oh! Well, thank you! It’s great to be back! I’m still reading and writing and reviewing, but this week I’ve mostly been writing. I wrote a post over the weekend, but it turned into a rambling rant about a topic that has been done by better folks than yours truly. Here, for example, by Kristin Lamb. I decided I’d better stick with talking about the stuff I’ve been reading. In books, that is.

Before I jump in, though, I just want to say how much I really enjoy reading Indie authors. There is so much creativity and talent that we readers have been denied by the templates of big 6 publishers, and what an agent thinks she can sell. I’m not Anti-traditional publishing at all. I’m just glad that there is a bit more to choose from, and that I get to see NEW ideas in fiction. Take a look at the indie authors at your favorite bookseller, and buy a couple of their books. You’ll see what I mean.

If this is your first Thirty Minute Review post, go back to the beginning, and see what you’ve missed.

Aaaaaaand, back.

I have finally made a little time for some catch up reading, and I’m so glad that I did. I got to the halfway point in Dead: The Ugly Beginning last night. I was getting a little worried about the vignettes, to be honest. I was afraid they were going make the whole book feel like a bunch of left over scenes that were thrown in to fill up some space, and turn a short story into a full length novel. I admit it, I had a crisis of faith. The thing is, I couldn’t stop reading it, regardless of which part of the story I was on. It’s all good stuff.

So I better go ahead and say ‘Sorry’ for doubting you, Todd.

image from http://theinevitablezombieapocalypse.com/page/50

I’m happy to admit that I was wrong. Every time I think I know where this book is taking me, Bam! We swerve onto a side street that I didn’t even know was there. It makes for an exciting ride.

I looked back at the stuff I highlighted while reading last night (something I usually do when I find disagreeable grammar), and every item was something I thought was particularly fun, clever, or just wanted to read again. I’m not going to give anything away, but the scene on the highway with the station wagon and the baby… Brilliant! I want more. Happily, I have about half of the book to go.

But first, I have to tell you what’s going on in D.D. Scott’s Carats and Coconuts. After the first story in the book, I am into the actual Carats and Coconuts part. All can say at this point is that more I read these characters, the more fun they are.

D.D.’s narrative style is so easy going, that she can feed you a few bites of back-story, and it will taste just like the main course. It’s sort of like listening to the stories your favorite tells after a long, crazy vacation. You have to imagine that your aunt it really good at it, though.

Even though I’m meeting the characters somewhere after the first book in this series, we’re becoming pretty good friends. I’m not even terribly upset that I’m not the funny one of the gang, either. No, I’m ok with it.  Really, it’s alright, I’m fine. Can we just drop it?

I’ll catch you up again next week. Until then,

Cheers!

Greg

Lucky Sevens Manuscript Sample, Such Fun!

  By Greg Carrico | March 25, 2012 - 3:16 pm |
8 Comments

I have been tagged by Alicia and Roy Street!

By the way, I stole the Lucky 7 Meme picture from their blog. Don’t say anything!

This is, actually, such fun! Well, it is once the horror, shame and embarrassment wears off. Here’s what I’m talking about.

A couple of days ago, I was tagged in a post on Facebook by the amazing Diana Layne (That’s her super-hero name). It was a trick post, because there were strings attached. Responding to a similar post from one of HER writer pals, she turned to page 77 of her WiP (Work in Progress), counted down 7 lines, and copy the following seven lines into her Facebook post. Sounds simple enough, right? (Yeah, I know, I’m pretending I figured it out right away. Shhh.)

By tagging me, I was compelled, yes COMPELLED to do the same. Oh, knock it off! Like you never succumbed to peer pressure! Diana write thrillers like The Good Daughter, with mafia hit-men in them. I’m doing what she says!

So, I dusted off a manuscript, and thought “This is going to be SO cool! I’m such an awesome writer! My seven lines are gonna Rock your Face Off” (thanks for that line, Ashley)!

And they did! But not in a good way, let me tell you! I couldn’t believe my seven lines from line seven of page seventy seven were so awful! So I did what anyone would do in this situation. I cheated.

I flipped back ten pages to page 67. Don’t look at me like that (PJ ;-) )! I know you peeked at your Christmas presents last year, so don’t cast that first stone! Only, those seven lines were terrible, too. It was a very lectury bit of dialogue that I thought I had cleaned up pretty well. Nope!

I had one more shot. I opened book I started a while ago, but shelved because the idea grew bigger. That book became book 2 of the series I wanted to write, so I set it aside. I found my seven. They were much less embarrassing than my other options, so I went it.

The point of this exercise, as PJ Sharon pointed out in the 7’s on her Facebook page (which were brilliant, by the way), is to force us to look at our writing totally out of context, and judge it objectively, which we authors are already Sooo good at. Yes, I’m being facetious. Because if don’t like what we see, our readers won’t either.

Sigh… I have a lot of deleting to do!

Anyway, Do you Wanna see my 7 lines from line 7 of page 7? No? That’s just mean! Here they are, anyway. Read ‘em and weep! Seriously, I’m sorry if they make you cry.

 

“You know that’s not true, Merrick. Even if you aren’t here to kill me, they won’t let me live. I know their plans. Besides, Sideon knows I’d never follow him. No real Enforcer would. How did he get to you, by the way? I wouldn’t have taken you for the corruptible sort.”

“I’m just a soldier, Mase. I serve my King.”

“No longer! You are an assassin, serving a tyrant. Soldiers fight wars, boy. You kill people for a man who has lost his mind. Well, I don’t think I’ll let that happen tonight, so, are you going to walk away, or do you really think it’s your destiny to die in this muddy alley?”

I’m not going to pimp this book yet, because my fantasy series won’t be out until I finish the Killing Tiffany Hudson scifi stories I started in Apocalypstic. The next one will be released in the coming days, by the way.

Now, take a look at how some Real writers did this:

Here is Rhoda Hopkin’s post on her 7′s.

Here is Alicia and Roy Street’s post.

They have links to others, too.

Now I’m supposed to tag other authors and subject them to this treat, but I just did that on Facebook yesterday, so if any of them decide to participate and post on their blogs, I’ll put their links here.

…it’s full of Zombie Apocalypse goodness!

  By Greg Carrico | March 22, 2012 - 10:37 am | ,
1 Comment

Welcome to another Zombie Apocalypse edition of The Thirty Minute Reader!

Thirty Minute Reader

Countdown to Zombie Apocalypse!

Catchy, no? I think it sums up what these posts are about pretty well. The premise is this: at least twice a week, I set aside thirty minutes to read. Simple enough. The day after I read, I make a quick post about it. There’s no mystery to it, so far. When I finish a book, I’ll post a thorough, critical review. Easy peasy.

Here’s the fun bit, at least for me. I have never had to limit the amount of reading I do, so experiencing a book like this is… well, a new experience. I LOVE new experiences. I love seeing something that I’ve glanced at a million times in a new light, and that is just what this little experiment is doing for me.

Try it for a week, and you’ll see what I mean. Limit your reading time to 30 minutes, and you will become very jealous of that time. You will also become much more careful about what you read, because that time is now much more valuable (it’s supply and demand, folks! Fewer minutes to go around = each minute has a higher value).

That’s why I’m pretty happy with my current reading selection. I’m reading something I don’t normally read (Carats and Coconuts, by Dee Dee Scott), and I’m reading one of my favorite genres with TW Brown’s Dead: The Ugly Beginning. So, I get a new experience with one, and a new way to experience the other. It’s a win-win!

Anyway, last night, I read another half-hour’s worth of TW Brown’s Dead: The Ugly Beginning. This puts me about 20% of the way into this book, for those following along. Here’s the skinny:

After reading the first section, I liked where the story was going. It’s a zombie apocalypse, what’s not to love, right? During last night’s session, I was a little confused with the direction we were heading. This isn’t a bad thing, because I like it when an author makes me think about the story.

My confusion was with the vignettes section, which is a series of scenes in which a string of new characters, at this either loosely or unrelated to each other, experience the realization that there are some very foul smelling undead walking about, and have their first encounter with said stink-bags. Each scene was a delightfully gory, true-to-tradition zombie-fest, with some interesting characters. Again, what’s not to love?

One of Brown’s true strengths as a writer is in crafting scenes that stay with you after you finish reading. His characters, for the most part, act like I think real people would act in their situations, and his ability to describe the action and sensations of the characters make each scene feel more like a personal memory than something I just read.

I must admit that I read a little bit more than 30 minutes last night, because I had to find out how all of these individual stories fit together. Glancing ahead at the next section, I see that we are returning to the characters from book’s beginning, so now I’m no longer confused, just curious to see what’s around the corner.

I’m also very pleased to have noticed, or rather, not noticed the editing. Either this section is better edited than the first, or I’m paying too much attention to the imaginative, descriptive, disgustingly cool carnage to notice. In other words, it’s a bloody, smelly, undead mess, and I can’t wait to read more.

But first, you guessed it, I’ll be digging into some very silly holiday cheer in the very “Com”-y RomCom, Carats and Coconuts by ‘superfab’ author, blogger, and e-book trendsetter Dee Dee Scott, and I’ll tell you all about it on Friday.

Until then,

Cheers!

Greg

If you are just starting to follow  The Thirty Minute Reader reading posts,  you might want to read my first impressions of these books:

Carats and Coconuts

Dead:The Ugly Beginning

A little slower… yeah, just like that.

  By Greg Carrico | March 20, 2012 - 10:56 am | ,
2 Comments

Another half hour in the fantasy world of Carats and Coconuts has brought me to chapter eight. I know what you’re thinking. “This guy’s a slow reader.” Well, sometimes, yes.

image from: http://thepolkadotshoes.blogspot.com/2010_11_01_archive.html

image from: http://thepolkadotshoes.blogspot.com/2010_11_01_archive.html

There are times when I fly through the pages of a book, gulping down the story as quickly as possible to get to the next page. There are other times when I want to take it in smaller bites; one word, and one sentence at a time to catch every flavor and texture the author has stirred in.

This was a section that I wanted to take a little slower. It was the part where we get to take a glimpse at the main character’s “normal” home life, and see what her childhood must also have been like. It establishes the loving relationship she has with her parents and her husband, and also builds the handsome prince up a little more in his awesomeness. Blah blah blah. In other words, it was very rich in description.

Now, if I hear that some author is spending page upon page describing something to me, I’d probably rather have a spinal tap than read it, but that’s not what’s going on here. I’m not going to give away any spoilers, but just trust me. Ms. Scott deserves a shout out for her skill at sticking us in a chair next to her characters without overdosing us on unnecessary details.

Here’s the coolest part, though. It never stops being funny! It’s not a Buddy Hackett (Google him, kids), in-your-face funny the whole time, (thankfully!) but it’s filled with clever bits of humor that kept me smiling until Bam! She smacks me upside the head with a C-PAP machine! Hilarious!

So, I’d like to raise a glass. Here’s to pacing, skillful writing, clever humor, and Buddy Hackett. And on second thought, kids, maybe it would be best if you didn’t Google him, after all. Just keep reading Carats and Coconuts…

Be sure to come back on Thursday, and I’ll bring you up to speed on Dead: The Ugly Beginning, by TW Brown.

How much description do you like to get from an author? Do you need to be told in detail what a character looks like, what she’s wearing, how she walks, or do you just want to know the important stuff so you can paint your own picture?

Sleep tight. Don’t let the Zombies bite!

  By Greg Carrico | March 16, 2012 - 12:04 pm |
2 Comments

Just in case you’ve never done this (and how can that be possible?), reading zombie books before bed can result in some pretty trippy dreams. Did I just say “Trippy”? Sorry, it won’t happen again. I meant gory, hide-in-the-closet, zombie-killing, wake-up-screaming dreams. This is especially the case when the author parks you, your Kindle, and your chocolate-caramel coated pretzels right in the middle of the story. Those weren’t my pretzels, by the way. Honest! I don’t know how they got there!

Let’s get to it, shall we?

Dead: The Ugly Beginning by TW Brown

Dead: The Ugly Beginning by TW Brown

 

In TW Brown’s book, Dead: The Ugly Beginning, he starts off with a forward, acknowledging the greats of the Zombie genre, and establishing himself as a fan, which matters. I, too, am a true zombie fan, and have been for decades; yes, even before it was cool (What? Zombies have always been cool!). That’s why it is easy for me to see Brown’s love and veneration of zombiedom in his stories, and it’s also why he is able to make those stories so viscerally real.

As I am writing this, I can still see the intro scene in the main character’s apartment playing out in my head, and it is wonderfully disturbing! It is, and I say this with all due reverence, one of those great scenes of zombie gore that I will never forget. Sincerely. Don’t worry, though; I won’t spoil it for you. I couldn’t do it justice in these few words if I tried. So for his ability to put me in that room, and implant phoney memories of the scene in my little mind, I salute Mr. Brown.

That’s why this next part is difficult to write. I have a problem, and I know it is my problem, but I can’t control it. Do you remember the little kid in that movie who saw Dead People? He didn’t want to see them. He didn’t ask for that, but the dead kept pestering him, and he had to deal with them.

That’s me. I’m that kid. But instead of dead people, I see grammar. I see missing commas. I see misplaced, misused, overused, and abused commas. I see head-hopping, split infinitives, subject-verb disagreements, and… Dear God in Heaven save me, I see tense changes. My God! The Tense changes!!

At this point, I’m just talking in general terms about my affliction. I am not saying that I found all of these things in Dead: The Ugly Beginning; far from it. I’m just pointing out the depth of my malady.

There were a few things that I think should have been caught by the editor, though.  I’m not going to point them out here, because first, some of them might have simply been tools that TW (if I may) used to control the pacing of a scene. I’ve done that before, too. It’s called artistic license, and it’s certainly worth the benefit of the doubt. Second, just because I notice these things, doesn’t mean that most readers will, and with all of the 5 star reviews this book has garnered, I’d wager most haven’t, and won’t.

So here’s my problem: even though most of the… let’s call them “issues”, can easily be overlooked, ignored, and forgiven, I still noticed them. I took the time to highlight them on my iPad and make notes. This pulled me out of the story that Brown had so skillfully immersed me in. So, while none of the “issues” I noticed were deal breakers, if Brown’s world hadn’t been so real to me; if his story telling hadn’t been so strong; if my palms hadn’t actually started sweating, and my heart pounding, the editing issues were recurrent enough that I might have considered closing the book.

Fortunately for me, Brown IS a gifted story teller and a master of the genre, and so far, I am working through my affliction. I’m glad, too, because I have only read the 1st part, which is about 22 pages, or 9% of the book, according to the bottom of my kindle screen, and it is so engaging, that I don’t want to miss any of it.

Tonight, though, I’ll be switching back to Dee Dee Scott’s Carats and Coconuts, and will also be starting a new book for a reader’s group on Goodreads.com, which I’ll tell you all about in my next post. Next week, I’ll post Tuesday and Thursday with reading updates, and probably an impromptu post on another day, so I hope you’ll check back and keep me company. Really! I’m still a little scared, so don’t go yet. Okay?

Meanwhile, I have a zombie question for you. How much thought have you given to what you’ll do when the Zombie Apocalypse comes? Will you be a survivor, or one of the nasty beasties trying to eat the survivors? I want to know what’s in your brains… your delicious BRAAAINS!

Cheers!

Greg

Carats and Coconuts is absurd… and I dare you not to like it.

  By Greg Carrico | March 15, 2012 - 12:43 pm |
11 Comments

**Spoilers- but not that bad. I’m just getting started…**

So, last night, I read some more of Carats and Coconuts. I think I’m on Chapter Five, now. If you don’t know yet, I just started reading it, and it is my very first ever Romance Novel. Oops! Rom-Com! I meant Rom-Com. I’ve already made a big deal of the fact that I am not Dee Dee‘s target demographic, but good writing is good writing, and can be enjoyed for its own sake, no matter the genre. That’s kind of the whole point behind my Reading Diversification Three Point Plan To Find New Indie Authors program, or RDTPPTFNIA, as I call it for my friends in the federal government and the Society for Creative Acronyms, or SCA, as I call it for… ah, never mind. If you are new to this blog, (of course you are, it’s a new blog!) you’ll learn that, sometimes, I digress.

Back to the book. To be clear, I am enjoying Carats and Coconuts. It’s a great bedtime read for me, because I find myself smiling at the sheer absurdity of the… of the… well, the whole thing! The main character is married to a Prince. I don’t mean he’s just a great guy, but a real Prince. An Italian Duke, nonetheless (Do they really have those?). But somehow, it’s a fake marriage, I think.  Her parents are deluded, and believe that they are Santa and Mrs. Claus, but otherwise seems to function normally. They actually arrive at the private airstrip where her private jet just landed, in a big sleigh pulled by reindeer. I won’t name them, but you probably could. Her prince of a man, who has something in the neighborhood of fifteen names, takes it all in stride, of course, because, hey, he’s a prince, and that’s how he rolls.

I know, right? Absurd? Bear with…

I would probably enjoy the humor even more if I had read the earlier books in the series, but honestly, it doesn’t matter. There are some inside jokes that I’m not getting, but I don’t care. It’s funny. It’s fun. It’s original. It’s completely ludicrous, and I can’t wait until tomorrow night, when I get to read more. Yes, it has to wait until tomorrow, because tonight I am indulging in some delicious, putrescent zombie flesh, courtesy of Dead: The Ugly Beginning, by the Horrifying Todd (TW) Brown, or TWB, as I call him…

What are you reading? Chime in and let me know what you think of your book, so far. If you need something to read, grab the books on my Goodreads shelf, and join the discussion, or head over the RG2E, and ask for a free copy of their featured book(s). You’ll probably get one! They give them away every day. FULL DISCLOSURE: the RG2E is owned by Carats and Coconuts author Dee Dee Scott. She hasn’t asked me to read or review her book, and I don’t think she even knows I’m doing this. I won this book, and several others on the WG2E, but am not affiliated with or beholden to them, except that I think they have a cool site with a great goal: Bring Readers and Authors together. Darnit! My disclosure became a promo! Oh, well. Deal with it!

Cheers!

Greg

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