The Last Storyteller—A Short Story That Wanted to Be a Novel

Title: The Last Storyteller

Author: Michelle Dutton (Michelle Knowlden)

Genre: Sweet Romance, Paranormal Romance

Summary

In the small town of Ravenscar, men and women turn into birds, and storytellers keep their people’s secret history alive. Miri was born to be a storyteller, but she abandoned the role and left Ravenscar after her sister’s betrayal and a painful break-up with her boyfriend, Trey. Fourteen years later, Miri returns to Ravenscar for her sister’s funeral. Trey is waiting. As Miri confronts the truth of the past, she struggles to understand who she is and what her future holds.

Review

There is a very dreamy, almost poetic quality to “The Last Story-Teller.” The town of Ravenscar seems like a place forgotten to the world: a little sad, a little run down, but full of its own charm, with characters you can root for. I liked Miri and I found I could relate to her journey. Coming home with a new perspective allows her to understand her past better; at the same time, being home reaffirms who she is. I could also relate to Miri as a storyteller and her struggles as an artist:

“In carefully collecting every word, I lost the sense of weaving only certain threads and in sharing the right story. In collecting every emotion, I lost the skill of only keeping the feelings needed for my listeners. In being so analytical about every detail, I lost the reason and art of telling.”

But the problem I had was that the story felt too contracted, too rushed. I had to re-read the opening chapter a couple times, because I felt like I was missing key information, such as whether shapeshifting was genetic and which bloodlines could shift into which birds and what the key characteristics of each family was. (This plays an important part in the plot.) Different conflicts were teased, but they were never really developed.

For example, Miri and Trey’s relationship. The two still clearly have feelings for each other, but something happened in the past that tore them apart. I wanted to see the drama of this play out, with Miri slowly uncovering the truth, with both Miri and Trey facing their hurt feelings, with both weighing the risk of heartbreak over the potential for true love. But there’s no time for that. They talk about their break-up early on, and the story moves on to the next problem. One problem is solved, then another, then another, until everyone is happy again.

Ultimately, this story isn’t really about Miri and Trey re-kindling their lost love, or about the mysterious death of Miri’s sister, or about the struggles of family, or about small town life, or even about what it’s like to turn into a bird. It’s about Miri and who she is as a storyteller. On that level, it works. But there were so many other themes that could have been explored, that could have made “The Last Storyteller” a fuller, richer, and more satisfying story. It had the potential to be a wonderful novel, but it gets hampered by its short story size.

Upcoming Events: Author Visit and Winning Nanowrimo

I'm excited to announce a couple of upcoming events I'll be participating in. These are free, so if you have any interest in them and happen to be in the neighborhood, be sure to check them out. 

Author Talk: Rebecca Lang and Michelle Knowlden

What: Fantasy writer Rebecca Lang (The Changelings) and mystery author Michelle Knowlden (Sinking Ships) discuss "Putting the Mystery in Fantasy and the Fantasy in Mystery." Free event. Signing, snacks, Q and A

Where: Brea Library

When: Saturday, August 22nd, 11AM

Michelle Knowlden is one of my dearest writer friends. I've actually had the pleasure of Beta reading (reading an advance copy of a manuscript to check for mistakes) her novella Sinking Ships, as well as the other books in her Abishag mystery quartet. So I'm very honored to be able to do this author talk alongside her.

Although she writes primarily in the genre of mystery, Michelle does have experience in speculative fiction, writing with author Neal Shusterman on Unstrung, an e-novella set in the Unwind series. As we talked about how to present together, Michelle mentioned that Sinking Ships does have a fantasy element to it, while my epic fantasy novel, The Changelings, has aspects of mystery. And so our topic was born.

We've been working very hard on our speech, but we should have plenty of time for questions afterwards, and maybe even a reading of our books. We'll see. As local and independent authors, we rely on community support and appreciate any chance we have to talk about our writing.Hopefully it will be a fun and enlightening event.

* * *

Strategies for Winning Nanowrimo

What: For those curious about National Novel Writing Month, or Nanowrimo, Rebecca Lang will be presenting a special Writer's Corner on ways for first-timers to approach Nanowrimo, to maximize the chance of success.

Where: Brea Library Writer's Group September Meeting at the Brea Library

When: Saturday, September 5, 1:30 PM

The first time I heard about National Novel Writing Month, I was convinced that I could never write 50,000 words (200 pages) in 30 short days. It took me years to wrap my head around the concept. When I finally mustered the courage to give it a shot, I realized that it was a great way to give my writing a boost. 

Winning at Nanowrimo is like climbing a mountain for the first time. It helps to prepare yourself for the challenge and have a guide to help you out. In the September meeting, I'll share my strategies I've used for getting through a month of furious writing.

Depending on how much interest I have, I may form a support group to help people with this challenge, throughout October and November. I may also post materials and resources on my blog, so even if you can't make the meeting, you can check in on what you missed.

Weekly Update: 2-6-15 Interview and Disney Costumes

The big news of the week is that I got my first author interview from Michelle Knowlden. In her monthly segment, "Friday Breakfast with an Author,"she asked me about my novel, my writing process, and my upcoming projects. You can read all about it in the link below:

https://mlknowlden.wordpress.com/2015/02/05/february-2015-first-friday-breakfast-with-an-author/

Michelle has interviewed many authors far more established than me, so it was a real honor to be part of the club. I have to admit that it still hasn't quite clicked that I'm an author yet. I feel like a writer... but with a book now available to the public. Maybe it will start to sink in during the launch party.

* * *

In other news...

This Friday was Senior Dress Up Day at Brea Olinda High, where I was subbing for the third day this week. (Yay for jobs!) The theme seemed to be Disney. Now high school students are too old for the sanctified princess gowns sold at the Disney Store and not yet rich enough to drop loads of money on a custom outfit. This leaves them with whatever they can scrounge up from the closet and their imaginations. I was impressed and bemused by the costumes that some of them came up with.

Disney Costume #1

White pants
+
White sweatshirt stuffed with pillow
+
White swim camp
+
Paper mask
=

Baymax from Big Hero 6

Disney Costume # 2

Red tunic with gold trim
+
Yellow baseball cap with lid facing up
+
Yellow foam cut into a semi-circle and stapled on lid
+
Sandals
=

Kuzco from The Emperor's New Groove

 Disney Costume #3

Wife beater
+
Hawaiian shorts
+
Sunglasses
+
Ice cream cone with no ice cream
=

Ice Cream Guy from Lilo and Stitch

It's amazing what you can create with a odds and ends and a little imagination.

Knit Hats for Pubslush

There's a new prize in my Pubslush Campaign!

My good friend Michelle Knowlden, who writes cozy mysteries and knits cozy hats, has graciously agreed to donate fifteen of her unique creations to my campaign.

These fedora-style, roll-brimmed caps were actually inspired by the cover art for The Changelings. They come in forest green, soft beige, and earthy brown. The subtle weave of greens and browns in the band mimics my main character's hazel eyes. It's one of my favorite parts.

For $15 you can get one of these beautiful hats and a bookmark, just in time for Christmas. All money I receive will help me pay for producing my first novel for publication.

Book Review: An Eggshell Present

Title: An Eggshell Present: An Abishag's Fourth Mystery

Author: Michelle Knowlden
Genre: Mystery

Summary

After three comatose husbands and three murders, it finally seems that Leslie Greene's days of being an Abishag wife are behind her. But a personal tragedy pulls her into a marriage with a dying man one final time. Money launderers, mysterious old case files, and vengeance-seeking siblings circle her latest assignment. But the hardest thing Leslie has to face is her own beliefs. When you work as an Abishag wife, life is as precious and fragile as an eggshell present. Can she find the courage to hope in the midst of heartbreak?

Review

If you haven't read the other Abishag mysteries, go and read them first. This final novella contains spoilers from every previous book and concludes several character arcs and themes woven throughout the series.

Michelle Knowlden writes beautifully. Her strength is her characters, and they suck you into their world. I think that's why her books keep getting better and better--with every one I read, I fall more in love with the characters.  Each new story cuts a little closer to Leslie's core, and this one cuts deepest of all and forces her to take a great leap forward in character development.

The beginning caught my attention. Almost from the first paragraph, I felt a deep sense of dread. Things happened quickly after that, and it was hard for me to put the book down. There was a lot of drama and poignant emotions. One of my favorite images in the book was that of a tangerine tree and a sudden harvest of fruit it gave right before it died. Leslie speaks of cherishing each precious remaining moment like it was a tangerine from a final harvest.

But the book also has moments of humor as well, especially towards the end. I was surprised how much I laughed. One of the things I loved was the way Leslie started taking self-defense classes, showing she's improving. The mystery, as in all of the books, take second fiddle to the character development, but I didn't mind. It was a fitting end to a wonderful series.

Book Review: Riddle in the Bones

Title: Riddle in the Bones: An Abishag's Third Mystery
Author: Michelle Knowlden
Genre: Mystery

Summary

After two dead husbands and an angry ex-boyfriend, 20-year-old Leslie Greene has had it with being an Abishag wife, the therapeutic "bedwarmer" of rich, dying men.  A summer internship collecting mule bones seems like a good way to take her mind off her dating woes.  But one evening, as Leslie's leaving the Palm Desert Institute of Desert Antiquities, a shot rings out.  Doctor Henry Telemann, Leslie's beloved anthropology professor, lies comatose on the floor, a bullet through his brain.

Why would anyone want to harm this kindly old man?  Could the answer lie in a shoebox full of old bones?  To find out, Leslie enters the Abishag agency once again. And this time it's not just killers after her.  A handsome lawyer, a flirtatious detective, and the grandson of her first husband all vie for her attention.  Leslie might just find her Prince Charming, if she can survive the case first...

Review

Characters are the beating heart of the Abishag series.  I could spend hours hanging out with "romantic rationalist" Leslie, her cool friends Kat and Dog, the charming Sebastian, and even Donovan, who let's just say gets some highly amusing comeuppance in this installment.  "Riddle in the Bones" contains warmth and humor, simmering jealousies, delicious French cooking, beautiful clothes, and, oh yeah, that pesky murder mystery that needs to be solved.

Interestingly enough, this is the first time Leslie's ever gotten to know her husband before she's married him and she's not exactly happy about this fact.  For her, it's hard to separate her boss "Doctor Telemann" from her husband "Henry."  While this sets up an interesting conflict early on, I felt Leslie's bond between Henry wasn't as strong as with previous husbands.  Maybe this had to do with less cuddling time or the fact she wasn't in her husband's house.

That was fine, because a lot of the central pull came from the romantic arc, which Ms. Knowlden has been teasing for the last two books.  Leslie is starting to slowly but surely gain confidence in herself and realize that she does in fact have options.  She also participates more in solving the mystery, rather than letting Kat do all the work.  I appreciate that.  However, I felt the mystery was too easy to solve and got a bit rushed and confusing at the end.

Book Review: Indelible Beats

Title: Indelible Beats: An Abishag's Second Mystery
Author: Michelle Knowlden
Genre: Mystery

Summary

Leslie Greene thinks dating a rich lawyer is a fairy tale come true. But without a fairy godmother to spring for the fancy dresses, she soon finds her bank account empty. Fortunately, Leslie does have one skill she can fall back on: marrying old, dying men. This time her adventures as an Abishag wife takes her to the La Jolla home of artist Jordan Ippel, where Leslie learns the mysterious circumstances surrounding his incapacitation. Could this be murder? Facing art forgeries, scandalous love affairs, and a holiday fruitcake that refuses to die, Leslie's latest assignment may bring her--and her friends--closer to danger than ever...

Review

Whereas in Sinking Ships, the first Abishag mystery, Leslie was just learning the ropes, here she has more experience as an Abishag wife, which means she spends less time reciting rules and more time solving the mystery. Likewise, author Michelle Knowlden has less introductions to get through, enabling her to dive straight into the story. The mystery is stronger and the writing is smoother this time around.

A lot of the same wonderful characters appear, including husband and wife duo Kat (Kathmandu) and Dog (Douglas), as well as the grandson of Leslie's previous husband. But the big new character is Jordan Ippel, who, though comatose, ends up being quite intriguing. Leslie only marries him because he lives far enough away that she hopes her boyfriend won't find out. She initially compares him to Dracula and knows only the rumors of his eccentricity. But as she enters his world and hears the stories from those closest to him, she unearths his true personality. What begins as a marriage of convenience grows into a marriage of love.

While the characters and relationships are my number one pleasure in the book, a close second is the description of food. I wanted to sample artisan oil and vinegar, herb and cranberry porridge, and Christmas breakfast streusel. (I could do without the fruitcake.) The house and the paintings were also well-described, creating a rich and vivid world I could easily step inside.

Friday Book Sale

I know what I'm going to spend my Amazon refund on.

My friend Michelle Knowlden's second Abishag mystery, Indelible Beats, goes on sale for 99 cents on Amazon tomorrow Friday, April 4th.  

Here's the summary:

Twenty-year-old college student Leslie Greene believes that dating a handsome lawyer is a fairy tale come true. Unfortunately, he demands her wardrobe be enchanting too.

Broke again, Leslie returns to her former job as an Abishag wife (temporary wives who comfort dying men). This time she chooses comatose artist Jordan Ippel, who is expected to die by Christmas in his La Jolla home.

Besides finding a forged painting and losing the cook, Leslie, her university housemates, and an old friend must unmask a killer to save the reputation of her husband. 

As one of Michelle's Beta Readers, I got a sneak peak at the book.  I thought it was even better than the first one.  And I loved the first one.

Along with Indelible Beats, twenty other ebooks go on sale for 99 cents tomorrow, from romance to fantasy and everywhere in between.  The complete list can be found on Michelle's blog:

http://mlknowlden.wordpress.com/2014/03/31/to-celebrate-my-dads-birthday-april-4th-99c-special-on-20-books/

Happy Reading Everyone! :)

Book Review: Sinking Ships

Title: Sinking Ships: An Abishag's First Mystery
Author: Michelle Knowlden*
Genre: Mystery, Novella

Summary

"For all the stupid reasons people get married, seems like caring for the dying is the kindest."

College student Leslie Greene is already nervous about starting her "job" as an Abishag wife, an unorthodox hospice worker paid to lay in bed beside a dying, comatose man--in this case 83-year old businessman Thomas Crowder.  Leslie anticipates personal scandal, loss of friends, and an end to her dating life.  She does not anticipate finding the day nurse lying in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor, throat slashed, dead.

Suddenly, Leslie finds herself embroiled in a mystery involving family secrets, blackmail, and the wreck of a Portuguese ship.  And the danger keeps growing.  An Abishag wife must watch over her husband--till death do they part.  But who will die first: Thomas... or Leslie?

Review

When I first heard the premise of an Abishag wife, I couldn't believe it.  Who would pay for this service?  It can't be real.  Yet the concept is so thoroughly fleshed out in Sinking Ships and the character's reactions are so realistic that the more I read, the more I found myself thinking, You know, I can actually see some rich, eccentric families paying for the "therapy" of having a young girl warm the bed of their dying father.   It's a testament to Ms. Knowlden's writing that she can take a speculative element like the Abishag wife, wrap it in a mystery, and still make you believe this story can exist in the real world.

A large part of it has to do with the characters, especially the protagonist.  Leslie is a compulsive rule-follower with a streak of inward defiance, a detached professional who forms a sentimental bond with her dying husband.  These contradictions make her all at once human and all at once fascinating.  The heart of this book is really her (non-romantic) relationship with Thomas.  It's surprising that she can form any kind of bond a comatose man, let alone such a tender one.  The scenes where Leslie interacts with Thomas are some of the best in the book.

The story is not perfect.  The first three chapters run a bit slow for my taste, though it picks up in Chapter 4, when the audience gets to see what an Abishag's job actually entails.  The mystery was fine, but I had difficulty keeping track of some of the suspects and the mystery concludes a little abruptly.  All in all, though, I felt the characters were great, the premise fascinating, and  the description was lovely.  It really made me think about death and love and the ways in which we perceive others.  I recommend it.

* Michelle Knowlden is a friend of mine and I did Beta read her book.  Even so, if I hadn't enjoyed it, I wouldn't have reviewed it. 

Weekly Update: 12-14-13

My head is aswirl with cookies to bake, cards to send, and rooms to clean.  But rather than bore you with all those details, a few random highlights.

Good friend, Michelle Knowlden just published a mystery novella, Sinking Ships, the first of an Abishag Quartet.  When Leslie Greene decides to solve her monetary woes by becoming an Abishag wife--spending each night lying beside a dying, comatose man as a form of hospice therapy--the worst thing she's anticipating is an end to her social life.  Instead she finds herself entangled in a mystery that includes a dead body, stacks of hidden ledgers, and a Portuguese shipwreck.  I was fortunate enough to Beta read Michelle's novella and it was excellent: clean prose, good characters, and great emotion.  I recommend you buy it.

I saw The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug on Friday night, and I really enjoyed it.  Granted, the beginning was slow and the "Spiders and Flies" chapter got a short shrift, but as the movie went on, I began to enjoy more and more, the character development, the action sequences, and the landscape.  I'm an incurable romantic--transport me to a far-off land with beautiful costumes, kings and dragons, Shakespearean drama, and stirring speeches, and I just melt.

A less inspiring portion of my week was spent researching agents.  This is depressing for me, because I wind up judging myself by the industry standards and finding myself lacking.  However, I did find some interesting ewssays written by speculative fiction enthusiast agent Russell Galen.  His inights actually prompted me to think about how I write my stories and how I can improve them.   For example, in an essay called "Wired Differently," he explains how fantasy writer J.K. Rowling was able to secure mainstream appeal:

"[Scifi/ Fantasy readers] like us are eager to crack the code of a science fiction or fantasy novel by lewarning about all the complicated background necessary to understand it.  But the other 90% of the audience gets so annoyed by the homework--learning magic systems, the galactic politics, etc--that they can't enjoy the superb storytelling, characterizations, and ideas [...].  What JKR managed to do, probably without realizing it, was to introduce magical elements slowly, so that the heavy background lessons are held back until we are acclimatized to her world."

Finally, a funny thing happened during my subbing this week.  As I entered a Language Arts classroom, I found--in the teacher's handwriting--my name written on the whiteboard, followed by a line from a poem I wrote in high school called "Coffee."  I blinked, wondering if I was asleep.  Students later told me that the teacher found the poem on my website and liked it so much, she asked her studewnts to integrate it into their essays.  I tell you, it was enough to make me blush.