Review: Even Villains Fall In Love by Liana Brooks

April 2012, Breathless Press

eBook
Personal copy

Science Fiction Romance (Superhero fiction)
Kisses, caresses, off-screen sex, quadriplets who want their Mummy NOW

Summary from Breathless Press:

If you believe the rumors you know that Doctor Charm, the wickedly sexy super villain, retired in shame seven years ago after his last fight with the superhero Zephyr Girl. The fact that the charming Evan Smith - father of four and husband of the too-beautiful-to-be-real Tabitha - bears a resemblance to the defeated Doctor is pure coincidence. And, please, ignore the minions.

Everything is perfect in the Smith household until Tabitha announces her return to work as a superhero. Evan was hoping to keep her distracted until after he rigged the 2012 presidential election, but – genius that he is – Evan has a backup plan. In his basement lab Evan has a machine whose sole purpose is keeping Tabitha hungry for him.

But children and labs don’t mix. The machine is broken, and Tabitha storms out, claiming she no longer knows him. World domination takes a back seat to meeting his daughters’ demands to get Mommy back right now. This time his genius isn’t going to be enough – he’s going to need both his evil alter-ego and the blooming super abilities of his children to save his wife. But even his most charming self might not be enough to save their marriage.

Amy's Thoughts:
Those of you that follow me on Twitter will probably not be surprised by my adoration of this book. Not only is it my twinny's debut (SO EXCITING), I helped out with the betaing and proofreading of this one, so it's completely amazing to have seen it go from a casual summer joke to Real Live Proper Book. YAY!

EVFiL is a fun, quirky story about the super villain who married the superhero. He's hot, she's gorgeous, and it was just the kind of scandal the world needed :D Only now they have four kids, Evan's plan to take over the world via the US presidential elections is falling behind schedule - and his wife decides she wants to go back to superheroing. Seriously, is this not the most awesome set up? But of course, everything goes wrong, and Evan has to decide between ruling the free world, and getting his wife back - and, of course, everything is not as it seems >:)

So, reasons why you should read this book:
1) It's funny.
2) If you like anything in the superhero genre, you will probably like this.
3) It's SO nice to have a romance novel(la) based on a married couple for a change. Romance does not end with a wedding, people!
4) It's funny.
5) I helped proofread it.

O:)

Excerpt:
Maria rolled her eyes. "We won't get hurt, Daddy. You'll protect us. You never got hurt as a super villain, did you?"
"Um..."
"See? We'll be safe."
Delila raised her hand.
"Yes?"
"Can we have costumes?"
He was blindsided with nowhere to run. "Sure. I'll have a minion get right on that. You do realize that if I let you near a fight, your mother will kill me? She will skin me alive. Literally. This is a very bad idea."
"Mommy doesn't like you leaving us alone either," Maria said.
"Minions don't count," Angela added.

Final Conclusion:
If you enjoy lighthearted romance, real family dynamics, and a bit of superhero magic on the side, this is definitely the book for you. It's funny, it's quirky, and I really can't wait to read the next in the series :D


Find Liana Brooks on her website, or see the publisher's page for Even Villains Fall In Love.

Liana Brooks was born in San Diego, California. Years later she was disappointed to learn that The Shire was not some place she could move to, nor was Rider of Rohan an acceptable career choice. Studying marine biology so she could play with sharks seemed to be the only alternative. After college Liana settled down to work as a full-time author and mother because logical career progression is something that happens to other people. When she grows up, Liana wants to be an Evil Overlord and take over the world.

In the meantime, she writes sci-fi and SFR in between trips to the beach. She can be found wearing colorful socks on the Emerald Coast, or online at www.lianabrooks.com.

The Week of Much Writing

So, it seems that the slump might actually finally be over. I've written consistently for the last two and a half weeks, and How Not To Take Over The World (affectionately abbreviated to HNOT) is nearly done! I'm so excited :o)

Unfortunately, I haven't been around on the net a lot lately - school has been back for two weeks now, and it's been a flurry of lesson planning, extra-curricular, and a whole bunch of out-of-school stuff as well. The good news is, things are settling down :) The better news is, this semester hasnt' been anywhere near as stressful as last semester - I'm actually getting the hang of this whole teaching thing ;) :D hehe.

But the funk is well and truly gone: I'm tremendously excited about writing at the moment. Where a month ago, everything I was working on was stuck, now things are flowing and the muse is hyperactive. Edits for Jesscapades begin on Sunday (Liana and I are working through a schedule together, in an effort to keep us both on track), Marked (previously The Hunter Hunted) is nearly finished being edited (although it will be put aside to make way for Jesscapades for the next couple of months), a new story, Secret Breaker, is firing on all cylinders in my head and involves much shiny, like werewolves and secret detection and lies and betrayal and forbidden blood magic and invisible tattoos and kidnaps and and and... O:) *shines*

Yes. I'm excited to think about starting Secret Breaker.

But the best news, at the moment, is that HNOT has only four-and-a-half chapters to go. If I work really hard this week, I can get it done before I start editing Jesscapades on Sunday, and THAT would be AMAZING.

Hence, this is The Week Of Much Writing. I have 4.5 chapters to write in what is essentially now 4.5 days, and each chapter is somewhere between 2 and 3k. I haven't written in those kind of quantities since I was working on Sanctuary in March, but I wrote 2300 yesterday, which is more than I've written in a day since Easter. So it might just be possible.

Here's to trying :D

Also, I take great comfort in the fact that Liana also has to finish her current novel before edits on Sunday, and even more pressingly since she's finishing the novel she intends to edit ;) So I am not alone in my Week of Much Writing. Misery loves company, after all O:) :D

Feel free to join in with the Week of Much Writing, if you like. I'll report my progress on twitter using the hashtag #muchwriting - I'll be looking out to see if anyone else is there too :o)

Technology and Magic

Today I have a guest post up on Liana Brooks's blog about the magic system that I use in my stories. I thought it might be interesting to post the original thoughts I had about magic and technology by way of prequel to that post :o) This is taken from my 'secret' blog that I use to throw all my worldbuilding thoughts onto, creatively named Worldbuilding, Inc. ;)

Had a thought the other morning to the effect that really, technology is magic. 'Magic', as I have been using the term, is that mysterious addition that has the ability to animate a bunch of cells and make them actually 'alive'; magic is life itself, in all its various forms, throughout the universe. We have magic from self, magic from plants and animals, magic from other people, and magic 'essence' from the universe itself - the latter being predominantly the realm of faith-based magic (miracles and what have you).

But what about the substances that aren't alive? Electricity is, in many ways, uncannily like life-force - I mean, think about the number of books that have been written whereby electricity is used to make something live. Think even about the fact that we use electricity to stimulate a flat-lined heart into beating again... And think about the wonders that we are able to do because we can manipulate this and knowledge like it.

It's like magic, isn't it?

So, we have 'magic', which uses lifeforce, and we have 'tech', which uses electricity. Both are magic; they don't actually conflict, like so many people seem to think they do. They complement. They need to be used in balance - to wit, Sanctuary. Life and death magic, acting in balance.

Only it isn't death magic, because that's something else again, I think. Utilising remnant echoes of life magic? Something, anyway.

But no, tech magic is unlife magic, not death magic. It's the magic of things that were never alive, it's the magic of computers and lightbulbs and machines.

AI is where it starts to get blurry - the world is trending towards a greater and greater merging of life and unlife, first and foremost in the field of AI, and of things like growing artificial organs. We are blending the two, trying to break down the boundaries (oh look, Chaos Theory! Everything swirling together to become mixed, like jam in rice pudding! You can't stir things apart, only together) so in the future, 'magic' is going to encompass both. Only we probably won't call it magic, because we tend only to use the term for things we can't understand ;)

Blog Tour and Pitch Poll

First up, sorry the pitches weren't up when the previous post went up! They're up now.

NB: Sadly, the gadget doesn't allow me to change the colour of the text, and of course, the default colour is BLACK. Oi. I'll have to get my html monkey to play around with things and see if this can be fixed, but in the mean time, you can read them - you just have to highlight them with the mouse to read them o.O

Of course, they're also posted below in the same order they appear in the poll, so you could, for example, note that you like sentence #1 the best and click on the first little circle that appears %-)

These are the first three sentences:

• At her father's funeral the people of the sea and the creatures of the forest both arrive to claim the newly orphaned girl as their own - and neither side is willing to let her get away.
• A no-hoper teenage boy finds an abandoned mine, haunted by the ghost of his baby sister. When his family threatens to incarcerate him if he won't keep quiet, he becomes determined to get to the bottom of the family mystery once and for all.
• Torn from his home the night before his wedding, a young man is thrown into the Labyrinth Tower to be one of four that will lead dead souls to the afterlife.

Vote for your favourite in the sidebar! And a note to all you RSSers out there - consider this your official invitation to delurk!


In other news, I've been on a blog tour! Yippee!

On Sunday, I was over at The Innocent Flower with Michelle.
Monday I was obviously here, discussing the contests! Don't forget, you still have time to enter! :)
On Tuesday I headed across to Liana Brooks' blog.
And Wednesday, today, I've been over at Myth-takes!

Wow, I've been busy :D But lots of fun. Please go check out the articles for the sake of the wonderful women who hosted me - they deserve all the traffic they can get! :D

The Joy of Editing

So, I discovered today why I like editing so much more than first drafts. I mean, I knew basically why I did, but today I added layers to that understanding :)

How did I make this discovery? I'm glad you asked :)

Liana has a great post up at the moment about types of first draft writers. She's beta reading a couple of novels right now, and they all have unique styles, and therefore unique flaws. I'm not specifically any of the novels she's talking about, but I am a Sparse Draft writer. Most definitely. My finished novels clock in at about 67k, which is way too short.

The funny thing is, as I'm writing I'm always paranoid that I'm being too wordy. When I did a few creative writing classes at university, my professor was always on at me for overwriting, and of course the speculative fiction genre seems to be uniquely plagued with info-dumps, and so it's been drummed into my head that less is more. So when I'm drafting, I'm almost deliberately being sparse.

Of course, I HATE first drafts, and being sparse could just be a good method of getting through them quickly...

But on to edits.

Because I'm a sparse draft writer, it means my edits are a lot more creative than they would be for, say, a too-much-fluff drafter where edits primarily consist of cutting things out, or for a enough-but-the-wrong-stuff writer, where edits consist of slashing things you like, even if you do get to creatively add stuff back in.

But for a sparse drafter, the edits are all creative. I'm adding stuff in, I'm layering - and in effect, I'm playing. With my world, with my characters, with my story... Editing is pure play, for me.

I hate drafting. It's rough, it's messy, it's illogical and full of holes and totally imperfect. It's creating the skeleton, which in the end looks ugly and mishappen and just barely functional.

I love editing. It's creative, it's fun, it's logical and works to fill in holes and create perfection. It's fleshing out the beast, giving it beauty and personality and life.

Editing? Yes. I love it.

So - what sort of drafter are you, and how does that affect which part of the process you prefer? Who of you prefers drafting to edits, and why? Honestly. I want to understand how someone can prefer drafting. And those of you who like edits - why? Similar reasons to mine, or totally different? Opinions, please!

Sharpen Your Claws

So, although a lot of you expressed the intent to write Sentences, only one did: many thanks, Anette :D Anette also wrote a fabulous post on her own attempts at the sentence; go read it, it's very informative :)

Here's the sentence Anette offered up for us to crit:

Tonight I Hunt: (short story)
Estranged from her people, Pearl, a predator by nature, adopts an abandoned prey whelp and holds onto this unnatural relationship, despite that it may starve them both to death.

You lot have at it first, and I'll wrap up with my own crit in the comments when you're done :)

I thought it might also be beneficial for you to see the entire process of creating 'The Sentence', which, coincedentally, is just what Liana and I did this week for one of her wips.

It all started with her complaint: [I have] no clue what a tagline or query is for KnK. It's.... grr... um... Enemies become friends to stop a friend from taking over the universe? I have no @%*#$( clue!
*head in hands* Blah. I have a hook for other books. I have tag lines for other books. But the one I'm actually working on? Nada.

Naturally, this was my suggestion: so worry about it after it's, you know, written? *eyebrow*

Alack, this was not satisfactory: Um, it's 3/4 done and soon to be edited. I want to ... query by July so it would help if I had a freakin' clue what the theme was, or who the real MC is *head->desk*

What could I say? It most certainly is a good idea to know things like that before you query, and how could I refuse a friend in distress?

So, a long discussion ensues about who was actually the main character: Kit or Khal. In the end, we voted Kit, because although the POVs are split roughly evenly, Khal's actions are all about Kit - and Kit's actions are all about Kit. So clearly she's our girl.

As Liana so succintly put it: She's the center of my warped universe.

At this point, I take a moment to remind Liana of the basic formula of The Sentence:

Sentence = protag w a need + antag w a need + interesting things, interesting place + twist

Tada! Logline, Sentence, and first line of query :)

So Liana attemps: Kit Marlowe returns to army life in an effort to escape her homocidal uncle only to wind up as a prisoner of war relying on her enemy for survival. When she finally escapes she returns home with thoughts of revenge, only to find the enemy isn't who she thought it was

My utterly charming response: Um, hello? Log LINE? As in, 30 words MAX, dear child!! *presses buzzer* buh bow. Try again.

At which point I felt I might have been just a little mean, so I prompted: Okay. So. Kit is the MC. What's her driving need? Her most pressing compulsion? What makes her tick? One phrase.

Liana: Survival. That's it.
Me: Great! Excellent!
Liana: friendship?
Me, in my own world: Kit, who needs to survive. Right, now, who or what is her main obstacle?
Liana: she cares about other people and wants to survive
The ever-sensitive me: Blah, enough on kit! Obstacle!

Liana: Everyone wants to kill her, because she's first an impediment, and then a witness; she knows who is trying to start a war.
Me: Who is everyone? Everyone is not specific enough. 'Everyone' will not engage ppl and cause them to be interested.
Liana: Everyone is her family, the Troian government, the Dovinian government, the council of worlds, a stalker....

Great, I say. And generally, their pressing need is to have her dead to protect themselves, yes? Great. So. In ONE or TWO phrases, give me the most distinctive aspect/s of your setting.

Liana: um... setting? Space and the Troius Cluster... three planets sharing a single orbit around the sun.
Me: And that's where the whole story takes place?
Liana: um, the majority of it...
M: Oay, good. Right. ONE OR TWO of the MOST interesting things Kit does?

Interesting things about Kit:
* Kit is a special forces pilot, a lyracist (pop star), she falls in love with a guy who is supposed to kill her, and she's a POW at one point

Great. So I ask for Kit's main story arc in one sentence, and Liana gives me:

Rearrange the universe so no one wants to kill her?

I love it :D But it's not terribly specific. So we continue:

Me: and the single biggest action she takes in order to acheive that is...? Give me plot. Give me concrete actions. 'She attacks a naval officer' or something. What does she actually do?
Liana: um... hmmm... She organizes a rebellion against the council of worlds and signs a treaty without them after removing her uncle Edward from power and taking over the Troius Cluster and Dovinia? It's a polite rebellion. She gets people to agree to leave the council and drop the treaty of New Madrid so they can arm their ships. The council is inciting wars, then moving in as a "police action" and taking over planets, so they are no longer ruled autonomously and the council is the only group allowed to have larger than individual fighter plane weapons, and--

Me: okokok!!! The first para was enough :D (remember, folks, if you're still reading, short and snappy is what counts with The Sentence. We Don't Need Background!!)

So we moved on to the last question: What is the single biggest twist in kit's plotline, without giving it away?

I guess that it's that she has to confront the family she's always run from and trust a man who scares her. She doesn't like big males, she was abused, although it doesn't come out until later the how and why. That and yeah, she's supposed to be dead

Me: That's pretty twisty %-)
Liana: Everyone thinks she's an idiot. No one knows anything but her public persona, and it's kind of like Paris Hilton joining Mensa or something for her to step out of her playgirl persona and become a real person... that's difficult.

At this point I'm shouting for joy. We have all the elements, and we have the potential for a really great sentence here.

Let's quickly recap:

* A protagonist with a compelling need: Kit, who needs to survive. Check.
* An antagonist with a compelling need: Her family, the Troian government, the Dovinian government, the council of worlds, a stalker - everyone who wants her dead. Check.
* Interesting things: special forces pilot, pop star, falls in love with the guy who's supposed to kill her. Check.
* Setting: The Troius Cluster. Check.
* Twist: Various, but there's definitely stuff to work with here.

So, I pull out all these pieces, and start playing with them. And here's what I came up with. Yes, I cheated a little in that most of them are two sentences, not one, but they are all between 30 and 40 words - short, snappy (heh, hopefully!), and succint.

1) A special forces pilot in the Troius Cluster, Kit Marlowe falls in love with the man who's supposed to kill her as she organizes a rebellion against the council of worlds - who also want her dead. (36)

2) Her family, the government, the council of worlds - everyone wants Kit Marlowe dead. Everyone except Kit herself, special forces pilot and pop star, who is determined to disappoint everyone. Again. (30)

3) It's hard to organize an interplanetary rebellion when you're supposed to be dead, but for Kit Marlowe, leading a double life comes naturally. Finding out who she really is, and falling in love - that's hard. (35)

4) Kit Marlowe, special forces pilot and famous pop star, is desperate to survive, even if that means confronting the family she's always run from, trusting the man who scares her most, and starting an interplanetary rebellion. (36)

5) A special forces pilot who needs to survive confronts the family who want her dead, and organizes a rebellion against the governments and council who also want her dead - and falls in love with the man supposed to kill her. (40)

6) Although everyone wants pop singer and special forces pilot Kit Marlowe dead, she's determined to disappoint - even if it means interplanetary rebellion, and trusting the man she fears most. (29)

7) Special forces pilot and pop star Kit Marlowe has her work cut out for her: not only must she confront the family she's always run from and raise an interplanetary rebellion, she has to trust the man she fears most - and do it all while playing dead. (47)

Note that you can either go the dry, formulaic approach (number 5), which is not recommended, or you can spice things up by adding in that magic quality: voice. Numbers 2 and 6 got Liana's and my votes for that reason: they have voice. They show Kit's attitude.

Note also that you don't need to mention everything in the sentence. Not all the sentences include all the elements you have to work with - and that's okay! Your sentence, your query, and even your synopsis are not a promise to the agent or editor that this is absolutely everything that happens in the book: they're a teaser designed to get them interested in the book - or, in the case of a synopsis, purely and simply to prove that you can bring your main storyline to a satisfactory and logical conclusion.

You never, ever, ever have to include everything. Not even in the book itself ;)

Now, go! Shred Anette's sentence, and I shall sharpen my claws to do the same! Bwa ha ha ha!!

Across the Genre Fences

Gah! My post for Friday didn't post! I'm terribly sorry about that. I'll post the movie I had lined up later this week instead.

Well, my week away was extremely, extremely busy - but it was fun. Good times with friends, some successful productions, and much happiness all round.

However, I am still exhausted from it all, so I beg your forgiveness... I'm not going to ramble like I usually do. (Ha, stop cheering. It isn't nice, you know :P).

What I'm going to do is respond to Liana's post from the 16th about genres.

I'm the first to admit that I used to be a genre snob. There were certain areas in the bookshop that I just didn't frequent - and I'd never even heard the term 'genre fiction', let alone read any of it. Until, that is, a dear friend, to whom I have a lifelong debt, introduced me to the wonderful world of fantasy via Terry Pratchett - Moving Pictures, to be precise.

And now I am as unsnobby as it is possible to be when it comes to reading. I am, in fact, a genre whore %-) I'll read everything, anything, something, so long as it has words on it - and yes, sadly, this extends to things like food cartons where no other reading material can be found O:)

So now it irks me when people say, "I don't read sci fi," or, "I don't read fantasy." I dislike the implication that a book's value is predicated on which shelf it sits on in the bookstore. To me, that's too much like predicating a human's worth on what country they come from. There will be people of every race and nationality that you don't like, of course - but there will also be people you do like. It's not enough to write a whole genre off because you've read one or two bad eggs - or worst, because you're scared of the idea of it, and haven't read anything in that genre.

So, in a celebration of diversity, here are my favourite books in as many genres as I can think of (restricted to books currently in print):

Literary: The Shadow Lines, by Amitav Ghosh.
Epic Fantasy: The Wheel of Time series, by Robert Jordan.
Urban Fantasy: Magic Lost, Trouble Found, by Lisa Shearin.
Science Fiction: Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card.
Space Opera: The Rings of the Master, by Jack Chalker.
Romance: Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen.
Comedy and Satire: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams and Lords and Ladies (or anything else) by Terry Pratchett.
Middle Grade: the first three Artmis Fowl books, by Eoin Colfer, or the Harry Potter books that count as MG.
Young Adult: Gallagher Girls series, by Ally Carter, and Harry Potter, by J.K. Rowling.
Mainstream: Swallows and Amazons, by Arthur Ransom (also classed as YA), and the Anne of Green Gables series, by L.M. Montgomery.
Fable/Mythic: The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho

I suspect I've forgotten a few genres. If that's the case, let me know in the comments, and I shall amend the list :D

Meanwhile - what are your favourite books that fall in genres you DON'T write in, and why?

The Christmas Play

On the 20th of December my church put on the play that Liana wrote for her church to perform (on the same day, hoorah! Except, due to time zone differences, ours was first O:)).

In this week of general slackerlyness and unofficial posts, I thought perhaps you might like to see a few pictures :o)

All the books you see are from the correct time period (as in, pre-1863) - I borrowed them from work, hoorah! :D The oldest one was from 1759 :) Much happiness.

The play tells the story of how Henry Longfellow came to write the poem "I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day", which was later set to music and became a well-known Christmas carol (though less well known here in Australia :)). His son, Charlie, was sent home from the American Civil War with injuries, and having lost his wife three years earlier, the holiday season sent Longfellow into a slump...

"How can you lie there and talk of peace while men die?"


His five children (including the injured Charlie) decide they must cheer their father up, and set about decorating the house and buying presents.

"Father, you must come. We're making Christmas decorations, and Annie is crushing the berries and making a terrible mess!"

And this is "Charlie" on his pratice bed (we used a comfier one on the day). The picture gives you a reasonable idea of the stage we had to work on. Behind the books were a desk and chair that represented Longfellow's study.



The cast:

Charlie, Henry Longfellow, Mr Sumner (a family friend), our narrator, Ernie (another son);
Me (the director), and the three daughters Edith, Alice and Annie.



The cast again, in Henry's study.

Welcome To My Sidebar: Write or Right

"An aspiring writer describes the ins and outs of writing, querying, and (we hope!) publishing."

Who: My 'twin', one half of the Twins of Darkness and Good, an aspiring writer who goes by the name of Liana Brooks. Liana writes mostly science fiction, with the odd fantasy piece thrown in. Her work is unashamedly cross genre - expect to find vampires, werewolves, shifters and various forms of 'pathics in her ViS universe, just for a start :)

What: Write or Right is Liana's personal writing blog. She gives updates on her writing progress, makes lots of announcements about competitions and writing opportunities, and offers her own thoughts and comments on the process of writing and most particularly plot formation and idea generation.

Where: Here or here: http://lianabrooks.blogspot.com/

Why: I love this blog not only because it belongs to my twin in the writing world, but because Liana has an awesome sense of humour and an amazing ability to generate unique and awesome ideas. Her posts always make me either laugh or think - often both - and it's a fantastic source of inspiration for science fiction and fantasy ideas. Go, check it out!!

When: Irregularly, but about 4 times per week. Regular posts on Fridays - the Friday Random, which are very enjoyable :o)

Fantasy Elements: Introduction

Many months ago (May, in fact), Merc posted an article titled Throwing Down the Gauntlet. I read it, and immediately knew I needed to respond to it - but it's taken me this long to figure out how.

See, Merc's challenge was to explain why you like the genres that you like. It's so easy to get caught up with what you don't like about a genre - and it's much easier, too. I can list a squillion things I don't like about fantasy off the top of my head. It's taken me three months to find a satisfactory answer to why I do like it.

And of course, I figured it out when I was penless, and the words were Perfect and Right. And now that I come to write this, I can't remember them. I hope you'll forgive any awkward moments :)

Fantasy.

It's quite a controversial word, really. People tend to either love it or hate it, and it's part of that oft-scorned cluster known as 'genre fiction'. As in, 'not literary fiction'. As in, 'not real fiction' - not real writing.

We who live in these Other Worlds, of course, know better - but how do we convince the masses that fantasy is not 'just escapism', it's not unreality, it's real, and it's concrete, and it's meaningful?*

This was a discussion I had on Friday night with my husband. He's extremely supportive of my writing, but like so many people I know exists in a state of puzzled bemusement regarding the fantasy aspect.

I hit on it during the discussion though, and I've mentioned it above. Look hard.

Did you find it?

It's one little word: concrete.

Fantasy takes all our fears, our desires, our hopes and dreams - and it makes them real. Concrete.

You're terrified of the dark? In Fantasyland, it can kill you.

You long more than anything to be known as a brave hero? In Fantasyland, you have dragons to kill, maidens to rescue, and evil to overthrow.

There's another key concept: evil.

Most of you who know me well will know I'm religious; those of you that don't, well, now you know too :) As a part of that, I believe whole-heartedly in the battle between good and evil - and nowhere can it be more concretely demonstrated that in fantasy.

In 'real life', evil is (given a majority consensus) murder, rape, abuse, corporate greed and so forth. In fantasy, it can be those things too - but the stakes are higher.

A man murders others in order to preserve his own life? How about a man murders others, rips his soul apart and stashes it around the world to preserve his own life...

A person manipulates others to get what they want? How about a person takes control of other people, leaving them with no will, no thoughts of their own - or at least no way to utilise them...

You see, in fantasy, you have magic. And magic is power. And power means that the stakes are much, much higher.

Because with greater power comes greater responsibility.

In this world, we can fight evil. In fantasy, we Fight it.

As Holly Lisle puts it, we're designed to fight monsters. Our subconscious knows it. And if we don't give it big monsters to fight, it will make big monsters out of little ones.

Fantasy reminds us that there are big monsters, that our little ones here at home really are little in the context of the world, and that there are bigger things, more important things to fight for.

And that is why I like fantasy.

*Assuming, naturally, that we're talking about good fantasy here; no genre, literary and commercial included, are exempt from their share of trashy pink books (the term 'pink' is thieved from my Twin of Darkness and Good, Liana Brooks).

First Lines and Hookability

If you haven't heard of Miss Snark, then you are a deeply deprived person. Go right now and check out her Snarkives which, even though she is no longer actively blogging, contain an absolute treasure trove of information on the writing business.

And although she is no longer blogging, the dear Miss Snark has spawned a great many spin off blogs - one of which belongs to Authoress, owner of the Miss Snark's First Victim blog. Over the next few weeks, she's running a second Are You Hooked? competition - and the rules are easy. When submissions open (circa July 14), email in your first 250 words of any story. Once the entry period is over, each entry will be posted in a separate post, and readers of the blog will comment on each post. As an added bonus, Authoress has managed to snag a real-life, honest-to-goodness agent who will also read and critique each opening.

Entry is free, you don't have to have a complete manuscript to enter, and all that's asked is that you give feedback on everyone else's beginnings if you get feedback on yours. What have you got to lose?

If you're feeling like you need a bit of a warm up, this thread over on Critique Circle is for posting entries to for preliminary help with polishing and feedbacky-ness. And our very own Liana Brooks is hosting a first paragraph 'competition' on her blog as we speak as a warm up for your first 250 words :)

Free feedback, from an agent no less. You can't pass that up every day ;)