Advance Review (or sometimes called Reader) Copies are books released to reviewers ahead of publication. These reviewers then post their honest opinions about the book on release day across multiple platforms (like Amazon and GoodReads). Whether it’s a 5 or a 1 star, an honest review is worth it’s weight in gold—which is one of the reasons ARC editions are free to the reviewer.
Our first read is FOURTH WING, by Rebecca Yarros! Book club starts today, but if you're seeing this after Sept. 1 2023 don't worry: you have until the end of October to join and finish the book!
Life has been a little all over the place for the past couple months. I had surgery, my sister had surgery, my husband was let go from Twitch, and now we're in the middle of moving! So with all that excitement, the newsletter and Book of the Month went to the wayside.
I want a way to continue Book of the Month, but in a way that lets me get to know you all better, and lets you see what an author looks for when analyzing and learning from a novel. That means, Book Club Time!
1. Sign up for a Fable.co Account
2. Join the Sword & Board Discord
3. Click on the Fable Link pinned in #Book-Club
4. Follow the Fable instructions on how to pick up the book.
As an author, my mantra is to tell challenging stories and minimize harm. The major failing I see with sexual violence in many media forms is where the point of view and gaze fall. Particularly in western media, that gaze is often heterosexual masculine. That means sexual violence comes from that same perspective, and makes grotesque GoT Sansa scenes where her rape is all about the men (either perpetrator or witness). The violence is there to horrify and titillate the viewer. We should be horrified. We should never be titillated. Respect for the survivor is missing in these situations. I could break down where this failing is in a lot of media, but I don’t think that is the most important conversation to have. I think the more important questions are: 1) should sexual violence be included in stories for shock value, and 2) how can sexual violence be written.
If you’re looking at this before May 1, 2022, we’re currently running a special promotion on our Patreon where when you sign up at any tier, you receive the patron-only Gods Chronicle Anthology, volume 1. It is an alpha read edition that gives a great deal of backstory for characters within The Dying Sun, such as Merikh, Loralee, and Nikias. It also gives perspective to oft talked about characters Mansur and Rajiya.
Below are snippets from each of the shorts within the anthology. If you’d like to read them in full, please consider becoming a patron. Tiers start at $5/month. Thank you!
It feels fitting to listen to Les Miserables while writing this. Two stories of an unjust, relentless pursuit. Underground Airlines is set in an alternate United States where slavery was never truly abolished. While most states have made slavery illegal, the Hard Four have not. It should come as little surprise to the reader who the Hard Four are: Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and a unified Carolina. The story follows Victor, a professional tracker set to find the location of the runaway slave Jackdaw. In doing so, Victor infiltrates an Underground Airline operation, and finds much more than he bargained for.
Books like this worry me. There is a fine line between being a disturbing warning about the dangers of racism, discrimination, slavery, and fascism, and normalizing it. The Man In The High Castle is frightening in it’s banality. It is a book I found worth reading as a writer. Philip K. Dick was an expert in his craft, and there are some positively brilliant moments that made me stop and reread them. On the flip side, there were several moments that made me roll my eyes from the clear lack of understanding (and perhaps even empathy) of a woman’s psyche.
A quote I’m very fond of is ‘Artists use lies to tell the truth,’ from V for Vendetta. It’s an appropriate and apt notion for The Storyteller’s Secret. There are two stories within the book. The first centers around Jaya, a NY journalist who is struggling with her third miscarriage and marital strife. After finding out that her grandfather in India is dying, Jaya is determined to uncover secrets buried in their past. It’s her last ditch attempt to reclaim who she used to be, before sorrow and grief tore a hole in her soul.
