This feels awesome. I'm going to throw some grains of salt on the following comment by saying I always feel like this, but... pretty sure this is the best novel I've ever written. It's also my first YA book, first first-person story, and first all-female point of view. A lot of firsts. And it's awesome. At least, it felt awesome. And early readers who've gone through the first few chapters say it's awesome. So I here, humbly, say this book could be awesome. Sadly, it still has a way to go before you can find it in your local bookstore. As in many rounds of revision, discussion, and then some time in submission to find an agent and editor. But all of these will only make it more awesome. In the meantime, I am looking for a few first-readers, especially if you can relate to queer or gender-fluid characters. Hit me up! Otherwise, sit back and wait impatiently. Aletheia is coming. 1. And she may or may not, based on how the last scene turned out, be called Aletheia of the Iron Staff. 2. And if you want a taste earlier than that, peep this early sketch I posted.
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If you've seen the trailers to LIFE, it looks pretty awesome: a near-future spacelab thing where they reanimate a cell from Mars--and it turns around and bites them. From there, the movie could have gone into an exploration of how to communicate with the alien, or how to defeat it, or a meditation about the inherent violence of life... instead, it (spoilers, but not recommending you hold your breath for this one anyway) devolved into an Alien remake, except this time the people trapped on the ship with the murderous alien don't have any good ways to fight it. From promising beginnings, LIFE basically becomes a horror-thriller about people trapped in a house with a killer loose, and doesn't end up stimulating much gray matter other than lizard brain fight-or-flight . On a scale of one to awesome, this is an okay: nice production value, truly scary at moments, but ultimately no well-developed characters or surprising storylines. Even their final solution to the monster sort of comes from thin air--and don't get me started on the ending. It's not quite alien-bursting-from-dead-character's-stomach, but it's almost as bad. Watch at your own risk. It has some cheap thrills, but I'm thinking your life-hours might be too precious to spend on LIFE. That's right. Like, all of them. Someone said all you have to do to write well is read often. I'd amend that by saying read widely, and read quality. So when the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America releases its top picks for the year, it's sort of like being handed a curated reading list. If, y'know, you think you have time to read five novels, five novellas, five novelettes, and a handful of short stories. I figured, I don't have much going on this month (just getting married and buying a house), I can read those. So here we go. Anybody want to join in? I need a better reading partner than Reddit. PS Yes, I know James SA Corey isn't on the Nebulas this year. But the first three books in their series have been so good, I couldn't help ordering the fourth as a palate cleanser. And, they deal tangentially with real nebulas, so. |
hi there.You've reached the electronic home of author Levi Jacobs. Cleverly hidden in this site are stories I've written, news about things I've published, excerpts from my novels, and dark secrets about my other life as an itinerant fruit salesman. Enjoy!
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