Accessing the Future Blog Hop

The Future Fire is crowdfunding another science fiction anthology! The theme this time concerns the issues that come with disability as well as how those intersect with other issues such as race, gender, sexuality, and class. Sounds pretty cool, huh? Well, to help spread the word, Future Fire has a blog hop going for writers and readers to talk about their work in progress or their current read and how power plays out therein. Future Fire general editor Djibril al-Ayad invited me to chime in and I quickly agreed.

“‘Tis not right, a woman going into such places by herself.”* – A Book List

As promised, here’s the list of books containing older women as important characters that my friends and I came up with on Twitter a couple weeks ago. Clicking on the photos will take you to the book’s Amazon page.

Thanks to @grumpymartian, @whateversusan, @chrysoula, @AthenaHelivoy, @JustinSRobinson, @byharryconnolly, @LJLietya, @KateElliottSFF, and @clundoff for chiming in!

	Mindscape, Andrea Hairston: an older woman gets the action going; another older woman has a hand in trying to destroy what the first set out to accomplish.
The first four books of the Deverry series, Katharine Kerr: I didn’t get any details on this one.
	Crown of Stars series, Kate Elliott: “One of the POVs … is a scholar who is about 50. She’s technically a secondary POV.”-@KateElliottSFF
Silver Moon, Catherine Lundoff: main character becomes a werewolf as part of menopause at 50.
	Paladin of Souls, Lois McMaster Bujold: the main character is in her 40s/50s, possibly late 30s (there was some discussion about this).
The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle: Molly Grue and Mommy Fortuna
	Downbelow Station, C.J. Cherryh: I’m not sure of her age, but as commander of an interstellar battleship, Signy Mallory must be a mature woman, close in age to Captain Janeway.
Tehanu, Ursula K. Le Guin: the main character is Tenar, a woman who has aged through the Earthsea series and is now middle-aged.
	Throne of the Crescent Moon, Saladin Ahmed: “majority of characters are older”-@grumpymartian
The Day Before the Revolution (from the short story collection The Wind’s Twelve Quarters), Ursula K. Le Guin: the protagonist from The Dispossessed returns as a much older woman.
	Swan Song, Robert R. McCammon: “mostly the older characters tell the story”-@grumpymartian

Another book was brought up in our conversation that hasn’t been published yet: The Great Way, an epic fantasy trilogy by Harry Connolly. It’ll be out later this year.

@chrysoula @MFennVT I'll be releasing one later this year because I couldn't find one I wanted to read.

— Gluten Dragon (@byharryconnolly) February 12, 2014

And, to finish up, these are the Discworld books that involve Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg. To quote Wikipedia:

[Weatherwax] has starred in six Discworld novels (Equal Rites, Wyrd Sisters, Witches Abroad, Lords and Ladies, Maskerade and Carpe Jugulum), has appeared briefly in Wee Free Men, acted as a significant supporting character in A Hat Full of Sky, Wintersmith, and I Shall Wear Midnight, and was referenced in three other Discworld books (by name in Mort, and anonymously in Thief of Time as well as Going Postal). She also appeared in the short story “The Sea and Little Fishes” and in The Science of Discworld II: The Globe.

Nanny Ogg appears in the same Discworld novels as Granny W., as well as the short story “The Sea and Little Fishes.” She also makes a cameo appearance in Thief of Time. Have you read any of these? Are there others you’d recommend? Let us know!

*–Granny Weatherwax, Wyrd Sisters (Terry Pratchett)

Monstrous Noir – A Guest Post by AJ Sikes

It’s guest post time! Aaron (AJ) Sikes has a new book coming out and I offered him space on the blog to write about it. Haven’t had a chance to read it yet, but you all know how I feel about monsters and noir. Gods of Chicago looks like it’s right up my alley.

Take it away, Aaron!

Words in Progress – 2013

So, 2013 is coming to a close. Another year gone like lightning. At least, that’s how they feel to me, for good or ill.

It’s been a busy writing year. I seem to have really caught the bug for writing and submitting, being rejected and submitting again. And writing again and again. Kinda like it.

As much for my own curiosity as anything, here’s a list of what I wrote and/or had published in 2013.

• “To The Edges” – published in May in Crossed Genres’ Winter Well: Speculative Novellas About Older Women. Starred review in Publisher’s Weekly happened in September.
• “Buccinum Anningiae” – written this summer. Submitted and rejected. Submitted again. No word yet.
• “Mind Over Murder” – also written in the summer. Submitted and ACCEPTED! More news soon.
• “Piper Deez and the Case of the Clanless Woman” – written in 2011. Submitted and ACCEPTED back then. But things got weird with that editor. Long story. Anyway. Submitted three times this year, rejected all three. 😦 Back in development. Planning to resubmit in early 2014.
• “Ketset Kismet” – written this fall. Submitted and rejected (awesome rejection email, though–very encouraging). Looks like I’ll be submitting somewhere else in 2014, maybe in February.
• “Meanwhile, Inc.” – I have a title, an idea, and am about 1000 words in. Another possibility for a February submission.
• The Travelers – the long-suffering novel. Still in process. The whole thing’s outlined now and the final scenes are coming together. Still working on the plan of having this draft finished in the next couple weeks and then spending 2014 rewriting.

Goals for 2014.

• “Breaks Like Glass” – another Piper Deez story, written in 2012. Submitted and rejected three times back then (I’m sensing a trend here.). I want to fix it and submit somewhere next year.
• Write more and submit more!

All those rejections up there seem a little sad, don’t they? But really? Of all the stories I’ve written since 2011, I have an acceptance rate of 43% (7 stories written; 3 accepted). Even if I do the math using number of submissions (12) instead of number of stories (which is probably the more accurate way to do this), I come up with a 25% acceptance rate. That’s ridiculously good.

So, yeah, as far as writing goes, it was a pretty good year in my world. Thanks, everyone, for reading my sporadic posts this year, and maybe even buying the books over there on the right. I wish you all the best in the new. I hope 2014 is as good or better for all of us.

“Writing on the wood is prohibited.” (Photo credit: Nicolas Karim) Random pic WordPress suggested. Kind of neat, huh?

 

An Interview with Justin Robinson PLUS Free Books!

Well, it is September 2013. It’s even September 24, 2013, and you know what that means? Only that Justin Robinson’s latest comic noir epic, City of Devils, is now available for you to buy and devour it. It’s already getting some amazing reviews. Justin was kind enough to settle in and answer some heavy-hitting questions I threw his way. I hope you’ll enjoy his answers. And read further to see how you can win a DRM-free digital copy of City of Devils.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi, Justin! Thanks for taking the time to chat with me about your new book, City of Devils. I hope all’s well on the Left Coast?

It’s been hovering around 100 degrees for a little over two weeks now.  I’m about a day away from sacrificing someone to Huitzilopochtli.

Yikes! I hope it cools down soon (and I’m suddenly happy I live on the opposite coast from you).

Since I haven’t read City of Devils yet (I’m waiting for the amazing paperback to arrive), I did a little research on the book and you (totally not stalking) to prepare for this interview. I was tickled to discover that besides loving old monster movies, you’re also a big Dashiell Hammett fan. So am I! What are some of your favorite stories of his? What of his writing would you say has influenced you the most?

The Thin Man is the perfect novel, full stop.  I love everything of his I’ve read, but that one stands head and shoulders above pretty much everything.  I didn’t consciously name Nick Moss, the protagonist of City of Devils, after Nick Charles, but I can’t speak for my subconscious.

Oh sure. The one Hammett novel I haven’t read yet.
(Nick & Nora Charles from The Thin Man.
I should have asked about the dog, too.)

In City of Devils, will there be monsters other than those from the Universal canon? Will we get to see a giant Venusian cucumber, for example? Or Slime People? Personally, I’m hoping for the giant octopus from It Came From Beneath the Sea, but I’m guessing that would be a little destructive for your purposes, wouldn’t it?

Killer vegetables have a proud history on the silver screen, from The Thing from Another World all the way up to Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.  And yeah, there are a bunch of monsters not specifically from Universal.  I started there, but quickly expanded, only chopping a couple ideas out because they were blatantly anachronistic.

It’s good that you’re looking forward to giant monsters.

I always look forward to giant monsters!

The aforementioned Venusian cucumber from It Conquered the World

One of the best descriptions of City of Devils I found was a review on Goodreads suggesting that the novel was “Philip Marlowe meets HP Lovecraft channeling Abbot and Costello.” Would you agree? How would you describe your book?

That’s actually really good.  I might sub out Lovecraft for someone like Tod Browning, but Lovecraft has better name recognition.  And the gill-men have some Innsmouthian influences.

Oh, cool. Can’t wait to meet them!

In your last book, Mr Blank, you have another character who deals a lot with monsters. Is there any kind of connection? How did that book influence this book?

They’re both comic noir novels written in the first person, but that’s pretty much the only similarity.  With Blank, I had a mandate for my hero: that he would never win a fight.  With Nick, he’s a veteran of both WWII and the following Night War.  He’s also a bit of a nervous wreck, so he’s at once better able to take care of himself, but less confident in that ability.  Plus, you know, there’s like monsters everywhere.

In terms of influence, I think Blank helped give me a road map for the kind of book I wanted to write.  I could look where I went right and where I went wrong, and kind of correct for that.  I was also more confident in my worldbuilding, so I really tried to create a different version of Los Angeles, that was both internally consistent, and consistently bizarre.

Mr Blank and City of Devils are definitely the closest of my books to one another.

On another topic of mutual fandoms—at least according to the little bird I talked to—I hear you’re also a Vincent Price fan. Is there any chance that a vengeful sculptor/Shakespearean actor/concert organist might show up in City of Devils’ sequel?

Heh heh.  You’re not going to have to wait very long at all for crazy musicians…

Excellent!

Thanks again, Justin, for sharing your thoughts with me and my readers. Good luck with CIty of Devils!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As for that contest, if you’re interested in winning a DRM-free digital copy of City of Devils, just comment below. It’s that simple. I’ll pick a random comment by next Tuesday (Oct. 1) as the winner. Comment away! You’re not going to want to miss this.

The Daughter Star – Guest Post

Today I have the pleasure of turning over the mic to Susan Jane Bigelow so she can share her thoughts about her new book, THE DAUGHTER STAR. Published by Candlemark & Gleam, it’s out today!

I first discovered Bigelow and her writing when I read BROKEN (Extrahumans #1), her debut novel from 2011. It’s a wonderful tale about superheroes. THE DAUGHTER STAR is the first book in Bigelow’s Grayline Sisters series. I was curious about Susan’s process in writing the book, and here she is to tell us all about it.

---

Sometimes, stories really don’t end up where you thought they would, and sometimes stories change so utterly in tone that they don’t seem like the same thing anymore. THE DAUGHTER STAR was like that.

This book started out in a rather unusual way; I wrote it as a “pace book” when I was working on THE SPARK (Extrahumans #3). What that means is that I’d work on it when THE SPARK had worn me out, or I was interested in doing something else. I’d never written two books at the same time before, and it seemed like a fun challenge. So what I came up with originally was a much lighter book, because that was what I needed to counterbalance the melancholy, tense and serious nature of Dee’s story in THE SPARK. The first draft started out being a fun, silly kind of space adventure, and I didn’t take it entirely seriously. I remember writing at the time that I was writing a Jenny Starpepper Mystery (or a kind of pulp adventure novel. It makes sense if you’ve seen the movie Paul. Why haven’t you seen this movie? Go see this movie! It’s like a love letter to SFF fandom, and it has Sigourney Weaver).

However, as I explored the world and the characters more deeply, I felt that this lighter approach wasn’t working. There were all these massive issues of an alien species basically taking advantage of humanity, two sisters who run away to war together, and Marta Grayline’s whole process of growing up, and I felt like I was dancing around them instead of tackling them head on.

I’m not saying lighter books can’t deal with these sorts of issues, they totally can and do! I am probably not the author to write books like that, though, and as I went through rewrites it seemed like the book had a split personality. Parts of it were silly or nonsensical, while other parts were haunting or sad, and it just didn’t work together in a way that made sense to me. Also, pieces of the world felt one-dimensional, and I really wanted this universe to be as real-seeming as possible. I decided to remake the book.

What I eventually came up with after numerous rewrites and revisions is a book that is a lot darker than the original drafts. The stakes feel higher, Marta’s development is clearer, and Beth’s decisions feel a lot more frightening. I also changed what I wanted to do with this series; instead of a serial of adventure stories featuring Marta, I decided to explore the defining story of each of the three Grayline sisters in three separate books. This means that the next book will be about Violet, and the third will center on Beth. This allowed me to wrap up Marta’s story in a way that felt satisfying, instead of leaving her unfinished. I finished the first draft of Violet’s book, THE SEEKER STAR, between when I turned DAUGHTER STAR in to my editor and got her revisions back. That experience really helped me sharpen DAUGHTER STAR’s focus a lot more, and pieces of the world made a lot more sense to me as well. The final book is darker and more serious, but it’s also a way better book. It didn’t feel to me like something I’d written until the final version, if that makes any sense at all.

I… suspect that this piece makes it sound like my creative process is nothing but pure chaos. This is often true—at least with the rough drafts. I will often have no idea how a book will end when I begin writing it. The real work, and the place where I become a lot more methodical, is in the reimagining and reworking. THE DAUGHTER STAR changed more than many books over time, but every book I write goes through that dramatic refining process.

I hope people will check out THE DAUGHTER STAR, which releases today. Thank you all for reading, and for M. Fenn for having me!

The Next Big Thing – Novel in Progress

As I mentioned Sunday, the fabulous Kay Holt tagged me, along with the other authors from our upcoming Crossed Genres anthology Winter Well (coming out May 24), for the Next Big Thing Blog Hop. Today it’s my turn to answer some questions about my novel in progress. Remember the Winter of the Novel? Well, that’s the book I’m going to talk about.

1. What is the working title of your next book?

The Travelers.

2. Where did the idea come from for the book?

The idea(s) come from a lot of places: movies (names of which I won’t mention because that would give away too much), music (Shooter Jennings’ Black Ribbons, among others (Ani, Joy Kills Sorrow, Leadbelly, Amy Ray, to name a few), has been played a lot and is responsible for my pirate radio dj, Erasmus Teller, existing), as well as the state of the world today. I wondered what would happen if I took the direst predictions of climate change scientists to their extreme, along with “free market” corporatism run amuck, and what that world, and the people in it, would look like fifty years out. That idea unleashed a lot of voices in my head wanting to tell their stories. So many that I’ve spun a group of them off into their own book (working title: The Tribe & the City). The characters that remain in The Travelers make up a group on the run (Erasmus and his daughter Bud, a rebel soldier and her physician lover (Tina Wheatley and Semira Sangare), and a man with many secrets (John Teague)) as well as the folks who are chasing them as they try to get to safer ground. Teague’s secrets are valuable, you see.

Along with a second novel, one of those “spun-off” characters also demanded her own novella (Seriously, she got in my face about it. “You know this community you’re writing about that I’m only an ancillary character in? I built it. Tell that story.”) and now appears as her younger self in “To The Edges,” my tale in Winter Well.

3. What genre does your book fall under?

Speculative fiction, future dystopia.

4. What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

I’m awful at coming up with actors to play my characters, partly because I suck at remembering actors’ names, unless the film’s fifty years old or more and black and white. That said, Freddy Rodriguez would work as John Teague, especially with the longer hair he wore in Bottle Shock. Erasmus Teller looks a lot like older Stephen King without the glasses. Beyond that, it’s all kinds of fuzzy.

5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

One sentence, huh? How about this one? In a corporate-controlled dystopian world, why is one man so important?

6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I doubt I’ll self-publish; I don’t have that kind of chutzpah. Also, I love working with good editors. They make the stories better.

7. How long did/will it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

Still in progress and has been for three years now. (I’m easily distracted by shiny anthologies looking for short stories.) I would love to have a finished first draft by the end of this year.

8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Coming up with book titles is something else I suck at. The Travelers is an action-adventure tale taking place in a degraded future world that also looks back through history a little bit with the stories that Teague and Teller share. It’s a dark tale with a snarky sense of humor.

9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?

I have to blame fan fiction, actually. As I mentioned in this post last year, I started writing this book after a few months of writing Whedonfic kicked open the door to the writing part of my brain that had been asleep for a long time. With three accepted stories in the last three years, I’m calling that a win.

10.What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?

Um, let’s see. Pirate radio, car chases, explosions, lesbian romance, sartorial excess, and a good dose of alternate history/mythmaking are part of the mix. I hope that’s interest-piqueing.

Tag other writers…

Natania Barron was kind of enough to let me tag her to carry on the Next Big Thing blog hop. She’s the author of the Candlemark & Gleam novel Pilgrim of the Sky, as well as several works of shorter fiction that have appeared in many cool places. Can’t wait to learn more about what she’s working on.

Things to Look Forward To

Given how half-assed I usually am about this blog, it impresses me that I actually have blog things planned. Scheduled even.

The usual stuff, you know, like Monday Morning Music. The big surprise there is I even have next week’s video picked. That just doesn’t happen. So, there’s that.

There are also book-related blog things in store. My Winter Well editor, Kay Holt, tagged me for the Next Big Thing blog hop. She also tagged the rest of the Winter Well authors, and we’re all going to take part, talking about our works in progress. The schedule is this:

• Minerva Zimmerman on May 12 (this Monday)
• M. Fenn (um, that would be me) on May 16 (Thursday)
• Marissa James next Monday (May 20)
• Anna Caro next Thursday (May 23)
• Winter Well available next Friday (May 24)!!

I’m excited to read about what these talented women have in store for us. I hope you’ll join us!

And speaking of talented women, Susan Jane Bigelow is going to be posting here on May 28, release day for her new book The Daughter Star. She’s going to be talking about her writing/editing process and how The Daughter Star changed over the course of writing it. Should be pretty cool

I think that’s it for now. Women Learn To Be Women #3 is still in process, as are some reviews I need to post, but I’m not going to pretend they’re near ready. But they will be! Someday! Soon!

WordPress’s selections for photos were impressively random for this post. I won’t bother you with all the wrestling photos (yeah, I don’t know either), but this one made me smile.

A well (Photo credit: Andreas Solberg) It’s also a little wistful, isn’t it? Poor little rusted can all alone.

The Persnickety Princess by Falcon Storm – A Review

Lavender hummed a peppy tune while thinking about how she could best put herself into some sort of peril that looked, but wasn’t too, dangerous.

At once, she remembered the time last month when the Witch’s cat got itself stuck in a tree. If she could get up a tree, the prince would have no choice but to help her down. What a perfect idea! Trees grew in abundance beside the road. A tallish oak looked particularly promising….

I received an e-copy of The Persnickety Princess (Tales from Upon A. Time – Book 1) by Falcon Storm in exchange for an honest review as part of the book’s Novelty Publicity book tour. I’m glad to say that my honest review is a happy one.

First off, a disclaimer: I am not the target audience for this book, not by a long shot. According to The Persnickety Princess‘s publisher, Evolved Publishing, this book is a “lower grade” book, meaning kids aged 6 to 9 are the most likely folks to dig it. So, if I’d had kids, we’d be talking about my grandchildren here.

That’s scary. Let’s not talk about that anymore. Let’s talk about the book.

The Persnickety Princess is a lot of fun and the first of what I expect to be an enjoyable series. Upon A. Time is actually a person–a Bard and the narrator of the story.

The strange man in fancy clothes dismounted his stolen pig and stood to face an infuriated–yet thoroughly confused–pair of city guards.

The guards arrest Mr. Time and take him to jail where he offers to explain the pig and his claim of being on “King’s business.” Instead, after explaining his name, he tells them the tale of Lavender, the titular princess, who has built herself a castle from which she waits to be rescued. She has definite opinions on what this involves and what her rescuer will be like, down to his exact height: five feet, eight and three-quarter inches.

Lavender has definite opinions on just about everything and when she’s not in her tower, she’s wandering around the castle being bossy and annoying.

…she ordered the cleaning staff to dust the castle and to place all the acquired dust in the pages of the biggest, oldest books in the library.

Talk about make work…

To help narrow the prince playing field, she hires a Wicked Witch to intimidate any who might come to rescue her. Unfortunately, Natalie–the witch she hires–isn’t really wicked per say, and kind of klutz. I adore the absentminded Natalie and her “familiar”, Mr. Whiskers–a little orange kitten she paints black at Lavender’s order. (My fingers are crossed that this story doesn’t create a trend of children trying to paint their cats…)

I’m also quite fond of Lavender’s sister, Petunia, a princess too, but one who doesn’t see the point in Lavender’s desire to have a man “save” her. She advises her sister that she needs to get out more and live instead of staying cooped up all day, afraid she’ll wrinkle her dress. As we’ll find out later in the book, Petunia is a “self-rescuing princess.” Yay! Storm wins all the points for coming up with “self-rescuing princess.”

But before we discover more about that, adventures must be had. A prince who meets all of Lavender’s criteria finally shows up, but woe! he’s not interested in Lavender. He’s there for Petunia, and just as he’s about to reach her, a dragon arrives and flies off with her. Hugo and his companion Dave (who’s 5′ 8 1/4″) take off to save her, and Lavender follows, because dang it, she’s the one to be rescued, not her fool sister!

The Persnickety Princess is the first novel by Alaskan author Falcon Storm, and I think it’s a fine start. His style of writing is charming and appealing. His characters are fun and the story itself kept me interested and, I felt, had a good moral to pass on for girls and boys. Also, the men of the tale being closer to average height than most “heroes” in fiction is a nice change and a nice detail. You don’t have to be six foot four to be a hero. Whether a 6-9 year-old will like the book? I have no clue, but it’s worth a shot.

About the Book – About the Author – Prizes!!!

About the book: High up in the tallest tower of the purplest castle in the Kingdom by the Sea, Princess Lavender awaits rescue. Desperate as she may be, only the most dashing, well dressed, properly mannered prince will do. Oh, and he must stand exactly four and three-quarters inches taller than her. A princess has got to have standards, after all.

When, finally, one such prince comes to her castle—not to rescue her, but her younger sister—Lavender refuses to be ignored. Instead of waiting for the next suitor to come along, she devises a plan to put herself in danger, thus forcing the upstart prince to forget her sister and rescue her instead.

Well accustomed to getting her way, there is only one thing, unfortunately, that this princess can’t control—her luck. When her plans go awry, putting her in very real danger, will she allow the prince to rescue her as he sees fit? Will he even want to try?

And will anyone be able to find a way to rescue Lavender from her persnickety ways once and for all? Find out in this comedic tale of princes, dragons, and dreams that just may come true.

The Persnickety Princess is a lower grade chapter book intended for kids 6 to 9 years old (although kids of all ages are sure to enjoy it!). Pick up your copy through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords or Kobo Books.

About the author: I was born in the frozen wasteland of Alaska with the unfortunate stigma of being both a daydreamer and left-handed. Starting from an early age, I’ve filled my life with stories of every sort from my father’s hunting trips to the Holy Trilogy (read: Star Wars). In the fourth grade, I became more interested in telling stories of my own than listening to those of others. Doctors—being doctors—attempted to medicate them out of me, but the best cure has always been a pen, a notebook, and my crazy, unrestrained imagination. I continue to whittle away at these stories in my endless search for the one that will finally bring me back to reality. All the while, I secretly hope such a story will never come along. I hear “reality” is far too boring. Connect with Falcon on his website, Facebook, GoodReads, or Twitter.

About the prizes: Who doesn’t love prizes? You could win (1) a $25 Amazon gift card, (2) a $50 Amazon gift card, or (3) a Princess Prize Pack, which includes a plush purple dragon, necklace with lavender pendant, The Fairy Godmother’s Guide to Being a Princess, tiara and wand party set, and a DVD of The Princess Bride.

Here’s what you need to do…

1. Enter the Rafflecopter contest
2. Leave a comment on my blog

That’s it! One random commenter during this tour will win the $50 gift card. Visit more blogs for more chances to win–the full list of participating bloggers can be found here. The other two prizes (including the awesome Princess Prize Pack) will be given out via Rafflecopter. You can find the contest entry form on the official Persnickety Princess tour page via Novel Publicity. Good luck!

Flesh by Khanh Ha – A Review

The setting is Tonkin (northern Vietnam) at the turn of the 20th century. A boy, Tài, witnesses the beheading of his father, a notorious bandit, and sets out to recover his head and then to find the man who betrayed his father to the authorities. On this quest, Tài’s entire world will shift. Flesh takes the reader into dark and delightful places in the human condition, places where allies are not always your friends, true love hurts, and your worst enemy may bring you the most comfort. In that emotionally harrowing world, Tài must learn to deal with new responsibilities in his life while at the same time acknowledging his bond, and his resemblance, to a man he barely knew–his father. Through this story of revenge is woven another story, one of love, but love purchased with the blood of murders Tài commits. A coming-of-age story, but also a love story, the sensuality of the author’s writing style belies the sometimes brutal world he depicts.

Well, it’s time for another blog tour review. Today, I’m taking part in the Novel Publicity tour for Khanh Ha’s debut novel, Flesh.

Disclaimer: The folks at Novel Publicity gave me a copy of Flesh in exchange for my honest review. Read on for my thoughts and then to see what kind of goodies you can win.