Stephanie Gunn

Day 05 – A book or series you hate

This is actually really hard, mostly because I don’t read books that I hate.  There are plenty of subjects that don’t interest me, and which I’m sure that I’d hate books about, but I just don’t read them.

There are certainly some books that I don’t hold in high regard for whatever reason, some of which I still read as guilty pleasures.

The closest I’m going to get to an answer here is anything by Dickens.  Who, to be fair, I only read in high school as part of English class.  And hated.  This could reflect on the teachers I had at the time, but I also got to read a lot of great stuff – like Fowles’ The Collector and The Great Gatsby.  Maybe I should have a go at Dickens again and see how I go.

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Day 04 – Your favorite book or series ever

Charles de Lint’s Newford books.  Which may or may not technically be a series.

I feel like I cop out every time I bring up de Lint in an answer, but his books are just magic.  I know plenty of people who find them too saccharine sweet, or who tire (perhaps justifiably so) of the intertwining between magic and the homeless.  But I find myself turning back to these books time and again, searching for the magic in the streets and characters, and longing for Newford.

And hell, I am Sophie, even though I’m a writer and she’s an artist

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Day 03 – The best book you’ve read in the last 12 months

Catherynne M Valente’s Palimpsest.

Fascinating idea, gorgeous language.  I make no secret of the fact that I’m utterly in love with everything Cat writes, and Palimpsest is my favourite book of hers to date.

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Day 02 – A book or series you wish more people were reading and talking about.

I’m going to hark back to a series that I read many years ago – Christopher Hinz’s Paratwa trilogy – Liege-Killer, Ash Ock and Paratwa.

I’ve only ever come across a few people who’ve read this series, though I’ve foisted it on many others.  I’m pretty sure that it’s out of print now, too, and my battered copies are much treasured.

I really should read them again to make sure that they’re as good as I remember.

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Day 01 – A book series you wish had gone on longer OR a book series you wish would just freaking end already (or both!)

The first thing that pops into my head is for the latter.  Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake series has devolved into…what?  I don’t even know any more.  There’s a lot of aspects of the world of the books that I still enjoy as brain candy, but I honestly think that there’s a limit to how powerful you can make your protagonist before it all starts getting silly.  Not to mention how many weird sexual situations you can force her into

I actually think that a lot of urban fantasy series are heading into this territory.  It becomes all about relationships and love triangles and heroines or heroes who keep on accumulating powers without too much actual character development.  There’s only so much I can read about the same character moaning about the same damn thing before I get fed up.

Series that I wish had gone on longer.  This is actually tougher.  I’d love to say Charles de Lint’s Newford books (even though I think he’s still writing in the series sometimes), but I think that he’s done as much as he can with the setting and characters without dragging it all painfully out.

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Randomly finding Deborah Kalin‘s Shadow Bound on the shelf, for I had not been paying attention to the internet and didn’t realise it had been released.

Not that I need more books on my to-be-read mountain, but I need to know what happens next, dammit.

I’m now solidly in the middle of the outline of The White Raven and I’m feeling stuck.

I’m making some huge changes to this book, and something isn’t fitting together quite as well as it should.  I can’t put my finger on it, and so I’m stepping back from the outline for a few days.

Instead, I’m going to read some of the writing books that have been languishing on my shelves, starting with The Fire in Fiction.

Which brings me to a question – which writing books do you find useful and/or inspirational?

Since I seem to be working primarily on The White Raven right now, I started another Tumblr account, this one devoted to inspiration for this book.

Things like this:

I’ve been working on The White Raven, and, along with writing a very detailed outline (in which the book is becoming very, very different from its last incarnation), I’m also putting together a new playlist.

This is Alanna’s song:

I’m not sure what I’m looking for anymore
I just know that I’m harder to console
I don’t see who I’m trying to be instead of me

All this running around, well it’s getting me down
Just give me a pain that I’m used to
I don’t need to believe all the dreams you conceive
You just need to achieve something that rings true

There’s a hole in your soul like an animal
With no conscience, repentance unknown
Close your eyes, pay the price for your paradise
Devils feed on the seeds that are sown

Rather belatedly, I can announce that I’m serving as a judge for the Australian Shadows Awards again this year, along with Craig Bezant and Jeff Richie.

Judging the awards was amazing last year, with so many fantastic works entered, and I can already see that this year is going to be as good, if not better.