A while ago I wrote a review of yWriter, the little software package I use (mostly) to write novels. I praised the fact that while it had an impressive array of useful features, almost all of them could be completely ignored without much detriment to your work process - this is a good thing. It means you're not spending hours farting about with something that feels like writing but actually isn't. That's far too seductive a game to play.

Liquid Story Binder is a beautiful software package that does exactly the opposite. You can have plot trees, character dossiers, galleries, timelines, mindmpas, outlines, journals, project goals, colour schemes for your work area, a music playlist, multimedia organiser, storyboarding, scene 'building', and a host of other things, most of which sound like things I've already listed but are apparently something completely different. It sounds wonderful - so many things you can do with your writing!

Oh - it also has a word processor. Yeah. The thing you actually use to write.

I'm a techy-kind of person. I love programs that promise to organise my ideas, or give me fifty new ways to arrange and look at the same collection of concepts. I've tried most of the writing software out there, played with it gleefully for about half an hour until I inevitably realise that while I love all the crazy wacky things it does, that's just not how I work.

yWriter is one of the very few programs I've found I can actually work with - and not only can, I prefer to. Compared to yWriter, word documents are giant marshes of forgotten plot points, misplaced notes and vanishing character arcs. yWriter keeps my stories organised without me having to actually spend time on the organising part.

Picked this up a while ago as an Australian fantasy debut:

Can healing defeat the sword? In seasons long past, twin gold-eyed princes sundered a kingdom. Rejecting his twin brother's warrior ways, Kasheron established a community deep in the southern forests. Forgotten by the outside world and protected by the trackless trees of Allogrenia, Kasheron's Tremen community has flourished, with his legacy of peace and healing upheld generations on. But now the forest has been breached by hostile intruders ... Fighting and bloodshed follow, testing even the skills of Kira, the greatest of all Tremen Healers. As well as sharing Kasheron's gift for healing, Kira has inherited his golden eyes and inspirational qualities - she, too, is seen as a leader amongst her people. As the attacks upon the Tremen become more violent, Kira is faced with a terrible dilemma. Should she stay and risk the annihilation of her community, or set out on a perilous journey north to seek aid from their long-lost warrior kin?

 

 

So we've talked about finding a writer group that's right for you. But when you've found one, how do you make sure you're right for them? The last thing you want is to find the perfect group and then either ruin the dynamic or be asked to leave. We all know "that guy" in the group - the loudmouth, the bore, the delusional wanna-be who thinks everyone should worship their writing like gospel. And frankly, it's pretty obvious how not to be 'that guy' - just step outside your own head and consider other people for a moment. But there are specific, less obvious 'that guy's for writer groups, and they can make things just as difficult - sometimes more so, because it's not necessarily obvious that they're detrimental to the group. I've been both of them in my day, often at the same time: I'm talking about the Egoist and the Opinionator.

 

Picked this up while on a small spree a few months ago, largely to see what all the fuss was about. Crime isn't my usual genre, but Larsson's books seem far more 'general fiction that happens to be about crime' than crime novels in themselves, which is perhaps some of the basis for their broad appeal.

The back copy makes the book sound positively pedestrian, sprinkling adjectives like candy around the character descriptions of CEO, journalist and security specialist.  Lisbeth Salander - our girl with the dragon tattoo - is an extremely socially awkward but highly intelligent hacker and investigator assisting Mikael Blomkvist, super-moral but convicted-of-libel financial journalist, in investigating a supposed murder for Henrik Vanger - friendly but manipulative head of a giant (and failing) corporation. There's a fair whack about business and secret accounts in the Cayman Islands, more family members that you can possibly keep track of, and the odd gruesomely violent scene.

 With a book this popular, I feel I have to either love it or hate it. But I'm rather ambivalent. It's not a bad book - Larsson certainly puts enough twists in the story that the reveal of The Big Bad People is a surprise, and the plot itself is fairly strong. But it suffers from the translation - the voice of the novel is clunky and uneven, and the pace is far too slow.

 

 I picked up Sawyer's Wake as part of an "I have a book shop gift card!" spree, from a bookshop that doesn't bother to separate young adult from adult in its (considerably large) science fiction section.

I'm not usually a young-adult-fiction reader - perhaps my own such melodramatic trials are too recent in memory for me to feel anything but tedium for the pangs of first love, schoolyard taunts and peer pressure. And, given the bookshop's all-in-one attitude, I've only got my own judgement as to whether this was aimed at young-adult.

It's certainly got the language for it. Our protagonist, nearly-sixteen, mathematical genius (pause to look up her name again on the Amazon page... not a good sign, folks) Caitlin, talks in teenage-speak, especially on her blog, which comprises a significant part of the book. The story focuses on her regaining her sense of sight (the descriptions of which are done remarkably well) and another, rather more important subplot that I can't delve into for spoilers, sperad amidst the usual teenage boy trouble.

However, Sawyer goes to pains to explain Google, instant messaging, email, binary, Google's page ranking system (and alternatives) and other very pedestrian elements of the internet. Or, rather, Caitlin explains it to us (or has it explained to her). Which is utterly redundant, not to mention boring, for today's young-adult reader, who grew up with the internet surrounding them. It's like explaining the desert to an Aboriginie.

 

So I'm rather left wondering who Sawyer was aiming at. Adults are unlikely to be attracted to the gushy teenage voice, and Sawyer's over-explanation of the obvious is likely to grate on a younger reader's nerves. That's not all, either.

 

I nabbed this with glee from the bookshop some time ago, and it gradually filtered up through my giant To Read interdimensional-bookshelf-portal. I knew of (though have not yet located and read) Black Juice, her most famous work of short stories (though I didn't know she's actually produced a fair number of books, most of which are largely unheard of by even the literati, it seems) but she's held a special place in my author-repository ever since a judge somewhere compared my writing encouragingly with hers nearly a decade ago. Ego is a powerful thing.

She became something of an unknown-role-model (interestingly, she also resorts to technical writing 'when the money runs low'), without my ever taking the time to go and research or, you know, actually read her work. 

 

 But - Tender Morsels, her much acclaimed novel released mid-to-late last year, did not disappoint. Except for the parts where it did, but the rest of it was so strong that I didn't mind - ney, I even expected and was happy to receive - disappointment.

Fire is Cashore's pseudo-sequel to Graceling, focussing on different characters in a different part of the same world - the Dells. Here, instead of Gracelings possessing innate, unsurpassable talent, there are monsters: versions of everyday creatures that are mesmerisingly beautiful (literally - they have mind powers), carnivorous and savage.

Fire - the title character - is a rare human-female-monster, so-named by her mother for the impossibly vibrant reds, pinks and coppers of her hair. She is beautiful, so much so that men lose their heads at the sight of her, succumbing to their basest instincts to possess, rape or destroy.

Fire, however "monstrous" her appearance and abilities, understands and feels the difference between right and wrong. She fears her own power, fears the nightmare she could become if she allowed herself the ease of manipulating those around her. But her kingdom, and those she loves are in dire peril, and Fire must face that fear if she wants any chance at protecting her home.

 

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I picked this up some time ago, while browsing in Reader's Feast for someone else's birthday present. The premise in the blurb intrigued me - inverting the traditional roles of Orcs as savage aggressors, and humans as victims:

Stryke, Captain lf the legendary Orc Warband the Wolverines, though that he had lef them to safety in a realm far from Maras-Mantia. A santucary fom the cruelty of man. But hen a message reaches him. A message from his past. A message of terrible foreboding for Orbs everywhere...

 When I picked it up, I'd never head of Nicholls, and had no idea that this was actually the first book of a sequel-trilogy to the Orcs: First Blood trilogy. Probably the kicker "the orcs are back!" should have clued me in, but it didn't - it actually wasn't until I went looking on amazon (where I swiped the cover image, right) that I discovered the previous series. And  that explained a lot.