Dark Horse

Reviving that theme of MM romance, this entry will be about Kate Sherwood's Dark Horse series.  Rather then a two person relationship, the primary relationship in this series is a menage a trois.  In all three books, I would say Dan is the main character, as each one seems to focus mostly on his journey.  The series is easy to summarize as beginning the relationship, working on the relationship, and continuing the relationship.  Because relationships are organic things, I did not want to say beginning, middle, end, because even if at the end of book three I felt these guys were solid, there is always something that can come up.  Aside from the main three books Ms Sherwood has created a plethora of side short stories, much like those for THIRDS, that fill in various blanks that are mentioned, but not explored, in the main novels.  I think in trying, and for the most part succeeding, in telling this story, and not focusing it solely on sex, Ms Sherwood did an excellent job of tackling an unconventional relationship.  The men are attracted to each other, and they do have sex, but that isn't all, and while some of it drama because well drama happens in books and that is why you read them, it didn't seem nearly as contrived as it could have been.  The story arcs seem to progress naturally between the books, with nothing so obvious as to make the reader wonder, where did that come from.  If I recall correctly, Ms Sherwood did mention somewhere that she is not a great advance planner, so I will give her a lot of credit for how well these three books interlock.  Anyway, if you are looking for an interesting series that deals with a non-traditional relationship, this is one I would suggest.  It isn't science fiction or fantasy, but rather romance, which is still a genre that require suspension of disbelief, though happening in the "real" world, makes that suspension more of a hope that such a relationship does actually exist.

Richard Aldington's "Childhood" part II

Something I read while at work yesterday, but I liked it, so here it is.  This is part II of Richard Aldington's "Childhood":

I've seen people put
A chrysalis in a match-box,
"To see," they told me, "what sort of moth would come."
But when it broke its shell
It slipped and stumbled and fell about its prison
And tried to climb to the light
For space to dry its wings.
That's how I was.
Somebody found my chrysalis
And shut it in a match-box.
My shrivelled wings were beaten,
Shed their colours in dusty scales
Before the box was opened
For the moth to fly.
And then it was too late,
Because the beauty a child has,
And the beautiful things it learns before its birth,
Were shed, like moth-scales, from me.

The Imagist Poets: A Collection of Imagist Poetry (Kindle Locations 176-181). A & L eBooks. Kindle Edition.

I haven't really read much of the Imagists as a group, or probably even realized I was reading an Imagist poet, since normally I end up reading whatever catches my eye at the time.  This kindle edition was bought strictly to increase my options for reading poetry on the go, and it was cheap.  I should get back to the poem though, or maybe I don't need to, this part says so much just by itself.  Just think of all the children with helicopter parents, whose blades have clipped the wings of their youth, and you get exactly what I think about with this poem.

Chaos Station, a bit of MM space opera

Mentioned in a post last week was the Chaos Station series by Jenn Burke and Kelly Jensen.  If you enjoy a classic science fiction space opera sort of tale, then you will likely enjoy this, as long as you have no issues with the primary couple being male-male.  The books feature space battles, first contact with an alien race, and much more.  While couples outside of Flick and Zed are mentioned, the only couple you really get to know and observe (as a couple) are Flick and Zed, as the authors do a good job focusing on that, while not pretending that other couples don't exist.  The do exist, but aren't the focus of the series, so aside from interactions displaying those reactions, there is little focus on them as couples, though the characters may be fairly well developed outside of that situation. This series seems to have been designed to conclude in five parts, with an implied HEA, since after book four, it isn't something I would take for granted.  The short honeymoon tale they wrote afterwards is a nice light-hearted read, which is needed after what the authors put Flick and Zed through.  Each book here seems to focus on a specific issue, and that issue is mostly resolved within that book in relation to the major story arc, making the books easier to read.  I will need to reread to recall if the books end in a cliffhanger like the serials of old, but with all the books released, even if they do cliff hang, at least you can get the next if you liked the one you just finished.

I am not sure if I actually wrote a decent blog entry here, having worked all night, and I probably need to sleep, but I will post it anyway, because this was one series I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered.  I am going to hope for some future shorts with Flick and Zed, but if the authors plan another full length book or an additional series with these two, I really hope they plan it as well as they did this one, because then I know several people who will enjoy reading it.

More Neruda, but there is so much and it is so good.

Pablo Neruda isn't the only poet I read, but I guess with so much of his stuff around, I find that I read it frequently, so find all sorts of things to mention.

“That time was like never, and like always.
So we go there, where nothing is waiting;
we find everything waiting there.”

Excerpt From: Pablo Neruda. “The Poetry of Pablo Neruda.”

While I know romance novels are generally not well written, there are many that are, or if they are not, at least they contain something that will send you somewhere else looking for what they mentioned.  R. Cooper's "A Boy and His Dragon" mentions Neruda's love poetry, and while it isn't the reason I discovered Neruda, I rather like that "low" genre fiction can with reference poetry and if done well, it doesn't seem to be striving.  Oddly, though I don't think this poem was referenced in the book, it does fill in a good deal of the book.  When you go looking for nothing, you get everything, which is one way to look at love.  I think every blind date is gone into with low expectations, so if something is found, and if that something is everything, then there you have it.  I like this little fragment from Morning. Sonnet IV, 100 Love Sonnets, as it says something about more than love.

THIRDS

Earlier I posted about various series, and while I don't think I want every entry here to be about books, I do think I will use that earlier post as a launch point for some comments on the series, because if I can get the author another reader, that is a good thing.

Anyway, Charlie Cochet's THIRDS series is an alternate universe with shape shifters explained via science and germ warfare.  (Yes, I know I linked it earlier, but it only seems right to link it again, since this entry is focused on that series.)  So far the series is 7 books, with a few more in the pipeline, and a spin off focusing on the main couple in this series, Dex and Sloane.  Overall, what I like is that Ms Cochet has a full cast of recurring characters, the members of Destructive Delta, and that while most of the books focus on the Dex and Sloane relationship, there are others that focus on the other members, and most importantly, there is a healthy amount of showing the effects the primary relationship has on the rest of the team.  So many books focus on the couple without paying attention to how the coupling really impacts friends and family, and these books try to explore those relationships as well.  THIRDS is a paramilitary police organization, so the device that allows these character explorations is generally that of solving crimes, but as long as every crime is not the same, it gives the books plenty of situations to explore.  With the way things are going, Dex and Sloane will end up as a two man James Bond, and considering how many of those books are there, we readers should have plenty of time to watch their relationship, and the relationships of others on their team, blossom.  I really tried to give a general overview, and I hope that I didn't make it too general or broad, but I also didn't want to review each book or give the dreaded play by play review.  There are a lot of characters and multiple couples, but Dex and Sloane are at the heart of it all, which is why I only mentioned them, though I do like the others.

In addition to the books, Ms Cochet also has an active Goodreads community for this book, and does a good job of keeping readers engaged, perhaps most obviously by the THIRDS Thursdays flash fiction posts, where she responds to various reader prompts, and those prompts are frequently based on some event mentioned in the books, but not explored there, so the world she has created becomes that much richer.  Charlie Cochet's website, with links to the flash fiction posts and other news, can be found here.

MM Romance and series

I was chatting with a friend tonight on the phone and something came to my attention when we were discussing books.  It seems that most of the books I have suggested she read were part of a series of MM Romance.  These weren't the typical series with a different couple each book, but rather a series that focused on a couple for several books, some of the series mentioned were Kate Sherwood's Dark Horse, Lyn Gala's Aliens and Assimilation, the Chaos Station series by Jenn Burke and Kelly Jensen, JC Owens' Gaven series, and Charlie Cochet's THIRDS.  The common denominator for all of these seemed to be that the authors gave the characters more than a single book to grow and develop.  Much of MM Romance gives a single short (80,000 words or so) book time to develop the relationship and wrap it into a happily ever after, that these series, with multiple books devoted to the characters actually give the reader more.  Everyone loves HEA books, but everyone also knows that the happily ever after is a work in progress.  After a few too many shifter books with knotting and an automatic HEA, I think readers deserve in depth view of relationships and the trials that form and strengthen them.  Not every series I mentioned is paranormal, but each works to detail the trials of the couple and how they overcome those obstacles.  Yes, all of them include sex, but that is not a reason to automatically remove them from consideration as good books.  I don't think Dex, from THIRDS, resembles Flick from Chaos Station any more than Liam resemble Gaven, and none of them resemble Dan or anyone from the Dark Horse series.  There isn't a resemblance here that says these folks are filling out a form and fitting in the characters.  All of them have proper motivations and all of these are explored during the course of the series, and I think what appears to be a common length restriction on MM Romance novels may actually do these authors a discredit, because the stories they write deserve to be longer, and I am pleased they take the effort to explore.

For the most part, links will be to the publisher site, but I think all are available on Amazon.

More on Pintado

Firstly, I found some of the poems from the collection I am reading online, here.  So if you like the one I transcribed earlier, there are others for you.

Of course I should have known that any recent book of poetry mentioning Alexandria would probably also reference others fascinated by the city, and low and behold, there is a poem about Lawrence Durrell, whose collection of novels making up The Alexandria Quartet I really enjoyed.  I must have given them away at some point, as I no longer have my paperbacks.

Between Cavafy and Durrell there is a poem for Musil, but he is not one of my authors, but I know someone who has read him.  Most German authors don't do much for me, which I am sure has something to do with the Tolstoy/Dostoyevski paradigm, that you will like one or the other, but not likely both.  I fall into the Tolstoy camp, but I have read enough Dostoyevski (given, some was Constance Garnett, but she didn't totally change the underlying story and mood) to know that he isn't my favorite.  Truth be told, while I like Tolstoy better, I am still not likely to pick up more books by either author.  Before my diversion into Russian authors, there was something about German authors, yes Musil is Austrian, but he writes in German, and how you are likely to like German literature or not, and I figured I tried enough German authors to just not bother with more, Musil came to my attention after my decision.  I still pick up the Thomas Mann I have in the house and make efforts to read a bit further this time, but haven't made much progress.

Carlos Pintado's "A Street in Alexandria"

I went looking to see if there was a translation of this poem online so I could link it, but there isn't, so hopefully this still counts as fair use.  It is from the collection "Nine Coins/Nueve monedas":

A Street in Alexandria

How could I miss, in this moment,

a youth walking beside me in Alexandria,

how he sees his shoulder knock against

my shoulder like ships driven by the tide,

and how that moment, barely noticed,

is eternal, beyond time as it passes

through golden desert sands.

How could I miss, just now,

that we could have been the ones, ages ago, 

who went to Constantine Cavafy's house

--lewd, lit with desire--

while the poet was out,

and remained there sadly, looking at the objects,

leafing through a book until we found

that poem, the one that speaks of two young men

walking in Alexandria, shoulders grazing,

glancing, just slightly, recognizing each other,

like ships driven by the tide.

(Translated by Hilary Vaughn Dobel.)  I did try to just choose part of the poem, but all the lines are too interconnected, and the poem too short, and the feeling was brought about by the whole, not just a line, so my attempts at a selection of the poem failed miserably, and it did the poet and the translator no favors, so I just transcribed all of it.

What I liked about the poem was the sense of continuity between poems, poets, places, and readers.  As a reader, I do enjoy books that take place in places I have visited or lived, and I also enjoy visiting places I have read about, so this poem, taking the circumstances and relating it to past events told by earlier writers, with of course the implication that it has been going on since time immemorial, and it will repeat itself as well, even if no one recalls these poems describing the event.

I hope that is not a hopelessly vague description of how and why I like the poem, but poetry was never my strong suit, though I do like it, and I do enjoy trying to share what I like (to all three of my readers).

Lionel Shriver's comments on "cultural appropriation"

Lionel Shriver gave an interesting keynote speech (text here) about writing.  I find it interesting because Kate Sherwood, a romance author I enjoy, has also recently commented that she doesn't feel comfortable writing a trans character because the trans community wouldn't appreciate it (my paraphrase).  I think it is important that authors are able to use anything without worrying about cultural appropriation, because as Ms Shriver pointed out, fiction will be little more than memoir if every writer can only draw from the well of personal experience, since outside of that would be "appropriation."  It seems she caused quite the stir, but overall, I would tend to agree with her.

Edit:  I have been reading more on this speech and the stir it caused, and while I will still support Shriver's assertion that fiction writers should be able to write what they wish, I will also say that if a writer is including a minority (sexual, ethnic, whatever) for no other reason than to check a tick box, then it probably better to not include said minority.  If there is a reason other than that to include said minority, for plotting or character development, then go right ahead and include them, but if, as a writer, you do a poor job with your character, then expect the criticism that comes with poor writing.  Everyone has different tastes and respecting those, while not necessarily agreeing with them, is one of the hallmarks of civilized society, the ability to agree to disagree.  Writers do care about their writing, and not every writer is going to accept critical reviews gracefully, but the chance of those reviews is an intricate part of publishing, so lash out, keep it civil, and make sure that your overall argument is not lost in the hoopla if your reaction goes viral.  I do think she made some valid points, but I think her argument is getting lost.  Fiction authors should be able to write the book they want to write, and if it is good, people will read it, and if it isn't, they won't.  Good or bad, it will likely get both sorts of reviews, and a writer needs to accept those, particularly if there is something in the book that borders (or is) controversial.

Obviously changed times

Tonight I was watching "That's Entertainment," which is a fairly interesting overview of MGM in its heyday.  Considering Disney's view of "Song of the South," one thing that I was surprised hadn't been edited out since the movie's premiere was a clip of Andy Rooney and Judy Garland in blackface.  While I wouldn't condone making a modern film with blackface, I do think it is important to remember and discuss why it may have been popular at one point in time.  I don't think that it is possible to deal with racism by ignoring and erasing these older representations, though they tend to be uncomfortable, so most would prefer they just not exist, which is very easy in this day and age.

Enough with the Harry Potter comparisons

I finished Aimee Carter's "Simon Thorn and the Wolf's Den" last night, and one of the reviewers at Amazon made some comment about Harry Potter.  It seems that every book about adolescents, magic, and school gets that comparison.  Considering how little this book resembled Harry Potter in every other respect, it doesn't even seem like a good idea to make the comparison.  I did enjoy Simon Thorn and his determination to do what he felt was right, as well the fact he also tried to accept the consequences of his actions.  Just because an author starts with the above three mentioned components does not make it a Harry Potter knock-off, it is how the author progresses with those components, and how the author handles the plot.  The more components of Rowling's book that make it into the new author's work is really what makes a knock-off.  I enjoyed the fact that this author really only took two of those components to create this fast paced novel, since school was a totally negligible aspect.  Was there a special school? Yes. Did Simon attend this school? No, at least not as a regular student.  After all the action, it does seem that he will be attending in the future books, but the school will likely be fundamentally changed after the events of this book.  Anyway, I guess I have seen the Harry Potter comparison far too many times for it to actually mean anything, which is a bad thing.  Points of reference are nice, but this one has been so over-used in describing YA fantasy novels that it no longer means anything except that there will be adolescents, magic, and a school.

Interesting Month

It has been an interesting month.  Early in the month I ventured to my hometown to visit family, as it turned out, I had not been there in five years, since shortly before my father started chemo.  Anyway, I managed to visit my parents and grandparents, and due to other circumstances I spent a bit more time at home than originally planned, which worked well, since I saw my aunt, uncle, and cousins in that extended time.  Later in the month, on the 31st actually, I learned that one of my grandmothers had passed.  I don't think I have ever been so grateful to have made a trip home.  Since I normally tried to maximize my time with her, and this was no exception, I have good memories from that final trip.  The last meal we shared was at my favorite pizza place, and when I saw her last she was making  crispy bacon for my 2nd cousin one morning.  I managed to get a some more memories with her which was great, and for what it is worth, I think the family get-together after her funeral would have made her happy, with all of her grand-children and most of her great-grandchildren spending most of an afternoon sitting, chatting, taking pictures, and being a family brought together by grief, but one in which grief did not overwhelm.  Most of the great-grandchildren did not know those from the other side of the family, but several were willing to be adopted into the other's family by the end of the day.  While she wasn't there, her abiding belief in family permeated the day, and if there is any sort of tribute appropriate to her, that would be it, no one took greater pleasure in taking care of her family.