Saturday, May 22, 2010

Author Interview - Christopher Farnsworth

Q: Christopher Farnsworth

1. What are some of your favorite books or authors?

I've got way too many favorites to name, but here's a sampling: William Gibson, Glenn Gaslin, Thomas Pynchon, Lee Child, Neil Gaiman, John Connolly, Charlie Huston, James Ellroy, Thomas Thompson, Scott Turow, Vince Flynn, Brad Meltzer, Joan Didion, John Gregory Dunne, Ron Rosenbaum, John Sandford, Stephen King, Alan Moore, Tim Powers... the list goes on.


I also just finished Ian Tregillis' Bitter Seeds, and I was really impressed.


2.You started out as a reporter, how did you get started and what made you switch to book writing?

I actually started out in literature. I thought I was going to be a literary novelist while teaching or something like that. Unfortunately, I found that I couldn't take another day of grad school, and I had to do something to eat and pay rent. I began writing for a local paper, and found I wasn't bad at it. I did investigative reporting, then got to a daily paper -- the Orange County Register -- where I covered business and tech. But I was still typing away on my own projects on the weekends. A friend of mine who was a screenwriter told me that books were a thing of the past, and suggested I write a script. I did. It sold. Then I spent the next seven years trying to sell another one. Finally, when the Writer's Guild strike hit, I couldn't even try to sell a script. I had an idea for a story about a vampire who worked for the President of the United States, and I decided to turn it into a book.


Or, the short answer: I always wanted to be a novelist. It just took me a long, long time.

3. How did your experience as a reporter impact your style as a novelist?

I think reporting taught me to how to write under pressure and to craft a narrative even when there are big holes in your knowledge. I highly recommend it as a way to learn the most effective and quickest ways to get your point across. It's sort of a shame that newspapers are dying. At the very least, they're better at teaching writing than most of the writing workshops I've seen.

4. Do you have any writing rituals that keep you writing or get you started?

The other great lesson from reporting: when you're on deadline, there's no such thing as writer's block. When you sit down at the screen, just start typing. Doesn't matter what. You'll find your way back to the story. But you've got to produce. Otherwise, the blank screen takes up far too much space in your head, and you'll freeze up. Or, as I heard it once, "just lay brick."

5. From Dracula to Twilight, writers have approached vampires in many different ways. Were there any authors/stories whose traditions you tried to include or avoid in Blood Oath?

I wanted my vampire to be scary. He might work for the good guys, but he is definitely a predator, something built to feed on humans. So I went back to the basic Stoker model -- faster, stronger, and smarter than we are. Limited daylight ability. Blood lust. Fear of the crucifix and anything holy, due to the pain those symbols cause.


I was really impressed by Charlie Huston's Joe Pitt series, about a vampire stuck in the wars between rival clans in Manhattan. And I have an abiding love for Joss Whedon's TV series vampires, even though Cade came out very different from them.

6. Blood Oath has vampires, werewolves, patchwork zombies, a mad scientist, super viruses, government conspiracies and hints of armageddon. Which threats do you think wound up being scariest?

Without a doubt, the human ones. One thing I've learned from my obsessive reading of Stephen King is that the things that go bump in the night are never as scary as what people do to each other on a daily basis.

7. Konrad Von Frankenstien is like the sum of all modern fears: He's a mad scientist, a genetiscist, an alchemist, a Nazi, a terrorist ... How did you come up with that spin on this classic character?

Back in college, I realized Shelley's Frankenstein makes a lot more sense when you realize Victor is the villain, not the hero, of the book. I wanted to get back to the hubris it would take to create life, and the viciousness it would require to keep at the experiment even after it had gone so horribly wrong. I thought of Sting's excellent portrayal in "The Bride," and also Dean Koontz's take in his own Frankenstein series. But the main thing I wanted to portray was the absolute malice of someone who has convinced himself he has all the answers, and views humanity the same way we look at bacteria in a petri dish.

8. The whole book weaves classic monsters into modern fears. Was that intentional?

I certainly hope so. Sometimes the narrative can get away from you, but I think it's very telling that right now, everyone wants to be a vampire, and everyone wants to fight zombies. Vampires are immortal -- they're the pretty side of undeath -- while zombies are scary and grotesque and mindless. Both represent a fear of death and aging, but they come at it from completely opposite ends. And they both feed on regular, standard-model human beings. When we start to look at ourselves as food in our own fantasies, you know there's a lot of anxiety out there.

9. What monsters do you want to introduce in future installments?

I loved the Universal monsters as a kid, and I've got a good start on them. I would like to play around with the Jekyll/Hyde idea, and I've got more plans for werewolves. And I like the idea of the 80s slasher villain -- the unkillable serial killer -- as an opponent for Cade. We're going to see the truth about aliens, and I'm also going to dip into the water for creatures like the Gill-Man from the Black Lagoon.


Also, in the second book, Cade fights Osama bin Laden. I've wanted to see him get his for some time.





10. If you were president and had the resources to have a supernatural secret agent what kind of monster would you pick? Why?

I'd pick Cade. No question. It's why I invented him. He's incorruptible. And Washington D.C. has a way of corrupting everyone, it seems.



You can find out more -- along with bonus materials, author bio, et cetera -- at presidentsvampire.com


My tour info is at presidentsvampire.com/tour and also on BookTour.com


I blog at my own personal website, christopherfarnsworth.com




And you can get more info on the book -- where to buy, etc. -- from G.P. Putnam's Sons:


http://us.penguingroup.com/

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Thorin's Review - Blood Oath by Christopher Farnsworth



















Title: Blood Oath
Series: The President's Vampire
Author(s): Christopher Farnsworth
Genre: Supernatural Thriller
Publisher: G. P. Putnam's Sons
Received: Received from ...
Release Date: May 18, 2010
Finished: May 1, 2010
Pages: 390
Challenges: None
Rating:









 



.








My Thoughts: In 1867 the President pardoned a vampire. No, for real. Andrew Johnson, elevated to president after Lincoln's assassination, did pardon a sailor who killed two of his crew-mates and claimed to be a vampire. The man spent the rest of his days in a mental institution. Or, as Blood Oath posits, at least that's the cover story.
Blood Oath is the story of how that Vampire, Nathaniel Cade, was actually bound to the will of the President of the United States by a blood oath and became a super-powered secret agent fighting supernatural threats to the U.S. The story picks up as he gets a new liaison, Zach Barrows, a young politico go-getter from the new president's campaign staff who was caught in a "decidedly non-procreative act" with the president's 19-year old daughter; this lifetime assignment is his career exile. Before long they're on the trail of Dr. Frankenstein, a chemist/surgeon/alchemist who has all the dark gravitas of Hellboy's Rasputin, and clashing with a black ops arm of the government that's under even darker cover than Cade. The plot is a potpourri of terrorists, defiled corpses of U.S. soldiers, immortality and the apocalypse.
Blood Oath reads like Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets James Bond (or Supernatural, 24 and Fringe to bring this reference into the new Millennium). It's got a good story, good twists, and Farnsworth makes about half a dozen characters come to life. Backstories and appetizing facts are sprinkled throughout to give everyone depth without slowing anything down. Just a really solid piece of storytelling.
Nothing in the book is necessarily new ground, but it's put together in new ways with a lot of polish (Farnsworth is a career journalist and scriptwriter, and it shows). The vampires, especially Cade, have an undercurrent of inhuman predator just beneath the almost human veneer that gives them more flavor than the parade of cry baby blood-addicts they pass of as vampires all over pop culture. Dr. Frankenstein is one of those characters I usually hate seeing resurrected, but again Farnsworth builds him just right: A creepy, immortal, mad scientist Nazi who's merged genetics and alchemy to horrifying biowarfare effects and is now working with Muslim terrorists. It taps right into your worst fears of what a supernatural terrorist could do. The below-secret government organization helping him drops as many tantalizing hints as an episode of Fringe.
So why not give the book five stars? The writing really moves, it's characters are interesting, the dialog is good and the action is huge. But I couldn't quote you a single line from it, and it didn't leave me thinking of anything. Shannon got the book, I devoured it, I put it down and its done, nothing really stuck with me; it doesn't hit that next level. Blood Oath also suffers from super-creep: Guy X is indestructible and super powerful. Oh, but THESE GUYS are even indestructibler and super powerful. Frankenstein's monsters are just bigger, badder, tougher ... but you don't really get why. It's the sort of thing you dismiss to enjoy the story, but great genre stories don't put quite that much strain on disbelief. Put it this way: If I geek-holed Frankenstein's monsters, taking apart their fake "realism" for argument's sake, the conversation would be over in five seconds: Frankenstein did it. To do a supernatural thriller right, there should be more
meat on the geeky bones. It's not the difference between a good and bad story, but it is the difference between good and great genre fiction.
Having said that, Blood Oath is as good a summer read as you're going to find, and would make one heck of a comic book or movie. It's a good thing Cade was turned after that bad ass vampire hunter Abe Lincoln bit it.
 
About the Author: Christopher Farnsworth was an investigative and business reporter until he sold a script, THE ACADEMY, to MGM. Blood Oath is his first novel. Find him at http://www.chrisfarnsworth.com, and read more about Blood Oath at http://www.presidentsvampire.com


 

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Confuzzled Stories - Birthday Chaos


Here's a little story about my faerie friends. I got the idea for this from a writing prompt on Writer's Digest site. I might try to do this every Wednesday write a little story that will included the Confuzzled Faeries.
Enjoy and Please Let Me Know What You Think In The Comments!


Birthday Chaos
Birthdays are a human celebration. I, on the other hand, am not human. But my adoptive parents were.
Turning 18 is not as important a mark for an elf as you might imagine, considering we live for a couple hundred years. But because I love my family, I put up with the birthday celebrations. I see the chocolate bunt cake in the waitress’s hands and hear them singing the traditional human birthday song. Maybe if I say what I have been thinking right now during the singing, they wouldn’t hear me, and my revelation would feel like it had never been revealed even though…. I sigh.
I just might as well get it out.
They are almost done singing. I keep that fake smile going and open my mouth to speak, and that is when the group of fae I befriended decides to crash the party.
These curious and cute faeries could turn this restaurant into chaos if not handled right. Many of them are playing with women’s hair or hopping into purses and dumping items out. They really like eople with hair since they don’t have any.
I roll my eyes and rub my forehead. Why does this have to happen now?
I have been handling this group of fae for a while, and they're not very bright. In fact, most things in this world confuse and enchant them. We call them Confuzzled faeries, and I am their faery herder.
That's what I was about tell my family, that I have decided to become a faery herder and not take the internship at Santa’s workshop, which is probably going to upset them. You see, faery herding is not really as upstanding as being one of Santa’s elves.
I hear a scream from the backroom chefs and see flames in the open area. Uh oh, now that is a problem. I jump from my seat and pull the magical net from my bag -- these faeries in particular have to be caught like butterflies. Speaking to them is a lost cause because most of the time they don’t understand. I often wonder if that's because they don’t have mouths.
I catch two faeries as I make my way to the back. First I run into the one I call the artist faery, because she paints with her toes. I scream, “No!,” when I see her painting in spaghetti sauce on the wall. I pick her up and put her in the net, which magically makes the fae tired.
There are 10 to 15 more faeries to catch. I try to remember my training and think of a way to distract them and make the herd come towards me, which would make things much easier. Then I remember what I love the most: theatrics.
I run back to my bag and pull out a book of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night's Dream. My mother looks at me, still not understanding what's going on. To really get the faes' attention, I'll have to speak pretty loud. So I pull out what looks like a cough drop and say a few magical words to make my voice sound like I have a microphone.
As soon as I start performing, the Confuzzled fae come toward me, and each one is collected in the net. Then applause erupts from the surrounding tables. Even my family joins in.
Somehow, I don’t think my job choice is going to be that bad.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

It's Tuesday, Where Are You? Ireland and Vendela

It's Tuesday Where Are You is a event that takes place every Tuesday at An Adventure in Reading.




 

I am in Ireland near Tipperary. I remininse about my first true love, Pauldeen Kincade. He was saved by a ghost and the fae one winter's eve. (An Irish Country Girl by Patrick Taylor)




Picture taken from artists John E. Kaufman's site http://jek2004.com/

The fantasy town of Vendela is ahead for me as soon as I can get out of this cave with a few dragon eggs I found. You don't think the mama dragon will mind do you? (DragonSpell by Donita K. Paul)

Bailey's Day by Robert Haggerty
























Title: Bailey's Day


Series: None

Author(s): Robert Haggerty

Genre: Children's Picture Book

Publisher: Outskirts Press, Inc

Received: Received through communication with Bostick Communications and author

Release Date: January 14, 2010

Finished: May 10, 2010

Pages: 46

Challenges: None

Rating:










My Thoughts: Bailey is a cute black and white dog whose human owner is a mailman. As Bailey's owner does his rounds delivering mail, the dog explores the neighborhood with his doggie friend Frankie.



This book will do well with the younger side of the picture book spectrum. The story is written in short, simple sentences on each page. Sometimes maybe too simple. I thought the drawings were cute and the photos at the end were a nice touch. Although I enjoyed the adventures of Bailey, I agree with another reviewer who said they didn't like the end. The owner reacts to the dog's escapades takes the fun out of the story.



About the Author: This is the first book for Robert Haggerty, and it's about his real life dog named Bailey. When not writing, Haggerty works for the postal service. Visit the Bailey's Day website at http://baileysday.com/.



Shannon's Review - Steinbeck's Ghost by Lewis Buzbee











Summary: From the back cover, "Travis looked at the stacks of books on his desk. These were his new life, his real life. A Wrinkle in Time led him to the library. Which led him to Corral de Tierra, which led him to The Pastures of Heaven, which led him to The Long Valley. And these books led him to the other mysteries that surrounded him - Gitano and the Watchers and Steinbeck's ghost - led him deeper into a world he'd never suspected. Books could do that to you. When you read, the world really did change. He understood this now. You saw parts of the world you never knew existed. Books wre in the world; the world was in books."




My Thoughts:There was nothing about this book I did not like. It's a book encouraging young kids to read books. And unlike some books that mention other books, this one does not leave you feeling left out if you have not read the books mentioned. It describes the books, the feel of them and the basics of the story. It made me want to read the books mentioned.
The story of the book is done differently then I have read before - characters from Steinbeck's novels really do feel as if they come to life in it, I could believe they're real. The book isn't scary, maybe a little creepy, but it's really about the love of books and the stories they tell. I still have lines from the book stuck in my head and pictures of how the town Travis looked like the world in A Wrinkle in Time. This was a book that I would read again and again just for the feeling it gives me about reading.

About the Author: Lewis Buzbee has written (according to LibraryThing) 4 other books. Some look like they are hard to come by. He is currently working on a book about Dickens and lives in California.

Teaser Tuesday - An Irish Country Girl

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:




Grab your current read

Open to a random page

Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!






"She regretted she couldn't play an instrument. When Ma told her about the sight, she'd mentioned music to help Maureen understand how some people were talented and most were not. " An Irish Country Girl by Patrick Taylor

Monday, May 17, 2010

Escape From The Carnivale by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson



















Title: Escape from the Carnivale: A Never Land Book #1
Series: A Never Land Adventure
Author(s): Dave Barry, Ridley Pearson
Genre: Children's Fantasy
Publisher: Disney Editions
Received: Bought and will give away on Paperback swap
Release Date: September 1, 2006
Finished: May 5, 2010
Pages: 144
Challenges: None
Rating: 









My Thoughts: The Never Land Series debuts with Escape from the Carnivale. This new Disney series tells the stories of other characters in Never Land besides Peter Pan.  In this tale, a curious girl named Little Scallop, who is the chief's daughter, befriends the mermaids Aqua and Surf. The mermaids normally stay close to the shore, but today the girls decided to search for pearls.  Since pearls are found in deeper water, that means leaving their safe haven and hijinx ensue.

Escape from the Carnivale is a short story with pirates and an exciting rescue. You can't go wrong with pirates. I liked this story more because it didn't have Peter Pan - there were some lost boys, but Peter Pan is so often the central character that it was a nice change.


About the Author: Dave Barry is know for his humorous books and newspaper columns. He has written over 30 books. Visit his site and blog at http://www.davebarry.com/.

Ridley Pearson is the author of 25+ mystery novels and has written 5 or more children books with Dave Barry. He also wrote the Disney Kingdom Keepers series, the first book of which I loved; someday I will get to the next two. Visit Ridley Pearson's website at http://www.ridleypearson.com/.






Sunday, May 16, 2010

Sunday Salon

A Bookish Kind of Life



I have so many things going on with my life right now that the blog has been losing time with me. I know I haven't posted many reviews lately or pretty much any thing. My top thing excuses why:



3. Doctor's appointments

2. After 33 years on this earth I am learning to drive

1. Getting ready to move.



While that's been said I still have so many ideas for this blog and ways to connect it to my art blog Confuzzled Designs.

I am afraid to tell you what I have planned because I am afraid then I won't get it done but I am sometimes so excited on the inside about what I think that it makes me tired and then I pass out and never get what I wanted to on the web. I have something planned for each day. Geez I have way too many ideas that I just don't follow through on and I don't know why I am like that. *sigh*



I think what I am going to try to do is maybe share a bit everyday what is coming next.





Bookish Events

In the last two weeks I met Charlaine Harris (author of Sookie Stakhouse Series) and Louis Sachar (author of Holes).



Charlaine Harris was so charismatic and funny. There where so many people at this event and by the sound extremely hard core fans. I have only read the first book of the Sookie series and I have only seen one full epsiode of True Blood. I got a couple books signed (yes one may be a giveaway in the future)and I got the 2nd book in the series which will probably be read 20 years from now because I have so many books to read at this point.



I was excited to see the author of Newberry Award winner, Holes, Louis Sachar. I realized when I saw him that I had read more then one book by him. I had just forgotten about them. He read from his new book The Cardturner, and answer questions. Most asked question was "Where do you get your inspiration?" His answer was that he really didn't know.







Upcoming Events


This Wednesday I will be attending a book signing by author John Grogan (Marley & Me)! I have not read the book but I did see the movie and thought that it was adorable.







Books to Be Served



I have quite a few books I have read that need to be reviewed:



1. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

2. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

3. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

4. The Shack by William P. Young





Books on the Burner



These are books I am currently in the middle of:



An Irish Country Girl by Patrick Taylor

Dragonspell by Donita K. Paul

Dark Fire by Chris D'Lacey

An American Original by Bob Thomas

Kelly's Chance by Wanda Brunstetter
 
----------------------------------------------------
Tomorrow - Review of Escape from the Carnivale: A Never Land Book by Dave Barry, Ridley Pearson

Weekly Geeks - P.A.D.B.

P.A.B.D. has plagued me on and off for my entire life. I know many bookworms who are faced with the same problem. Please read on to see if you have PABD and see how you can help yourself or others suffering from this disorder.

So what is P.A.B.D.?

Post Amazing Book Depression - The over-whelming sad feeling one gets after finishing a great book.

See the Signs of P.A.B.D. go to Weekly Geeks.com


Why Does it Have to End?








 There have been only a hand full of books/series that I have had P.A.B.D. In fact one book that I am reading now (An Irish Country Girl by Patrick Taylor) is one of them. Although the book I am reading now is the 4th book in the Irish Country series and I have not read the first 3 yet. I have absolutely fell in love with the character Maureen "Kinky" Kincade. I only have about 2-3 chapters to go and I don't want it end. The writing has such magic and decribes wonderfully what Ireland feels like. But since I was given the book to do a review I will be finishing it... I suppose.;-)





 I Knew it From the Start








I can remember one of the first times I had P.A.B.D. and it had to be during a reading a V.C. Andrews book/series. I do mean the original V.C. Andrews books not the ones written after her death. In middle school my favorite series was the Casteel series starting with Heaven. The stand alone novel by Ms. Andrews called My Sweet Audrina was thrilling and I loved the name so much I used it as my first email. I made websites about the books and author. I read fan fiction and even wrote fan fiction. I collected all the books and even had many european additions which eventually I gave away after the books lost there magic so to speak.





Always Full of Surprises






 Suprisingly the is the book that I remember thinking, when I wasn't reading, what is so and so doing or going to do. I say surprisingly because I gave the book a not so good review. That book is A Decent Ransom by Ivana Hruba.
The book had me so tense in a not so good way that by the end of it I wasn't dreading the end I was begging for it.




Tuesday, May 4, 2010

New Layout... Finally!

Lookie it's a new layout. After the disappearance of my last background I finally found a colorful background.    I am not sure about leaving the title and the banner although I don't think the fairy banner looks that bad even though the title of blog is repeated.

Let me know what you think in the comments. 

Monday, May 3, 2010

Win a signed copy of Kandide: Secrets of the Mist by Diana Zimmerman



For the month of May we have a book about Faeries.  Kandide : Secrets of the Mists is the about a faery named Kandide who learns about beauty on the inside is more important then the outside. It is the first book in a series of three.
See my review of the book  HERE!
The book is signed by author Diana Zimmerman

This Giveaway is open to all.
To enter into the Giveaway all you have to do is post in the comments that you are interested in this book AND PLEASE LEAVE A EMAIL SO I MAY CONTACT YOU.


GIVEAWAY END SUNDAY MAY 30TH 2010!