To ebook or Not to ebook

Everybody seems to have an opinion about ebooks. And not just a mild opinion. It's possible that ebooks are the future of publishing and shall save us all. Or they're the harbingers of doom and ebook publishers will have to pry cherished paperbacks from the cold, dead hands of loyal booklovers everywhere.

I've been known to hold many a strong opinion, but I just can't find it in myself to hold a strong opinion on this issue.

I do love my books. I save them forever. I have books on my bookshelves that I purchased when I was in sixth grade. I read them over and over again until the bindings fall apart. And then I buy a new copy and start the whole process over.

At the same time, I'm a techno-junkie. I have five windows open on my computer right now, and that's a low number because it's Saturday and I'm "off" today. I need to have three things on my person before I can leave the house: keys, wallet, and smartphone. I'm like one of those teenage sitcom kids who can text one-handed without looking. In fact, I once had an hour long text conversation with one of my critique partners because it took that long before either of us realized that our cell phones did, in fact, also function as phones.

And yet, I do not own a Kindle or a Nook or a Sony Reader. And I have no plans to pick up an iPad now that they're available either.

I have nothing against ebook reading devices. I can see how it would be convenient in some cases and I don't have any problem reading on a screen. I just haven't ever felt the urge to spend that kind of money on one more thing to lug around in my purse. And most of the books I buy are paperbacks, which means I wouldn't end up saving much, if anything, on the ebooks themselves.

So I've often said that I wouldn't join the ebook revolution until I had a smartphone with a big enough screen that I could use the one device as both a phone and a reader. Perhaps if I upgraded to something like an iPhone. But I don't have AT&T, so that has yet to be an option for me.

Well, this past weekend my service contract came up for renewal and I upgraded my phone to an HTC Hero.

(As a side note, I've had this phone for a week and I absolutely love it!)

I downloaded eReader (I couldn't find it in the Android Market, but I found a Beta for Android on the eReader site) and a couple of ebooks and tried it out.

I confess I found absolutely no difference in my reading experience. I've heard arguments that paper books are more comfortable, that it's easier to lose yourself in them, that reading on the screen is harder. I've found none of these things to be true for me. I'm completely ambivalent as to whether I'm reading a book on my phone or in paperback form.

As far as I can tell, price may be the only thing making the book vs ebook decision for me from now on. If the book is cheaper at the bookstore, I'll be buying it there. If the book is cheaper online, I'll be downloading it to my phone.

What about you? Are you an ebook junkie? A die hard paperback lover? An ambivalent like me? Or something else entirely?

Girl Talk Thursday: Fine Dining, Familiar Style

This week's topic: $10 and dinner needs to get on the table -- What do you make?

Character Participating: Natasha, from Familiar, a 294-year-old witch's familiar who spends her days slipping backward and forward through time, protecting newly-turned witches from demons, and shape-shifting into a tortoiseshell kitten. Yes, a kitten. You have a problem with that?

Um . . . Why isn't my brother David cooking? Seriously, David was a world class chef when he was alive. Anyone else in the litter tries to cook, he acts kinda like he's being forced to eat salt-coated wood chips.

I'm not saying I never cook. I mean, David is only 122. Obviously, I had to eat for the 172 years before he came along. And sometimes David is on patrol at meal times. So, you know, I cook on occasion.

Okay, so I order pizza on occasion. That counts as cooking, right?

Alright, alright, not the answer you were looking for. Let's see . . . On the rare occasion that I fire up the burners on a stove, I like spaghetti. Spaghetti is the perfect dinner. It's cheap. It's easy. It's filling. It even has redeeming nutritional content.

Now, before you start thinking I get all fancy with my spaghetti, let me go ahead and disillusion you. I died when I was in college and I never really got over that whole dorm lifestyle. I don't make my own noodles. I don't spend hours crushing up fresh-grown tomatoes for my sauce. I get my pasta from a box and the sauce comes from a can. Sometimes I sprinkle cheese -- from a bag -- on top. And if I'm feeling really festive, this time period has those great veggies that steam themselves right in the bag.

It's not pretty, and it really looks bad next to some of the meals David lays out, but it gets the job done.

DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed in this blog post reflect those of the character in Nikki's mind, and are not necessarily those of the author herself.

CONFESSION: Spaghetti is also one of Nikki's go-to meals if she's really stuck for something to make for dinner. Though she recommends adding two tablespoons of Melting Pot Garlic & Wine Seasoning to the pasta sauce. Tends to cover up that signature from-the-jar taste.

SECOND CONFESSION: When it really comes down to it, nine times out of ten Nikki will opt for takeout rather than actual cooking. Even cooking spaghetti. In fact, that pizza idea Nat mentioned earlier sounds like a good plan for tonight's dinner . . .

From My Bookshelf to Yours: March 2010, Week 2

This Week's Book: Wondrous Strange, by Lesley Livingston

Since the dawn of time, the Faerie have taken . . .

Seventeen-year-old actress Kelley Winslow always thought faeries were just something from childhood stories. Then she meets Sonny Flannery. He's a changeling--a mortal taken as an infant and raised among Faerie--and within short order he's turned Kelley's heart inside out and her life upside down.

For Kelley's beloved Central Park isn't just a park--it's a gateway between her ordinary city and the Faerie's dangerous, bewitching Otherworld. Now Kelley's eyes are opening not just to the Faerie that surround her, but to the heritage that awaits her . . . a destiny both wondrous and strange.

What I liked: I was totally impulsed into buying this book because of the cover while I was looking for something else. Actually, I was impulsed by the cover of the sequel Darklight, because Wondrous Strange was only showing the spine on the bookstore shelf, but once I picked up the one, I snatched up the other as well and found it to be equally beautiful. Truth be told, I didn't end up getting Darklight at all, because it's only out in hardcover right now and hardcover books and my budget just don't mesh well. However, I liked Wondrous Strange so much that I might have to reconsider. I don't know that I can wait until October for the next one . . .

I didn't just love this book's cover though. The story was beautiful. I liked the idea of the balance between a mortal boy raised in Faerie and a fae girl raised out here in our world. Kelley and Sonny complement each other so well and I was rooting for them both right away. I also liked how the story managed to be funny and exciting and romantic and silly all at the same time. Lesley Livingston's world is absolutely charming.

And, I liked reading about faeries. I don't do that very often. For someone who likes fantasy, I know surprisingly little about faeries. I've studied some Shakespeare, I've read War of the Flowers by Tad Williams, and one of my critique partners has a new series coming out in October that's full of fae. (Though, truth be told, I'm rooting for the reaper in Kalayna's series. He's just hotter.) That's about all I know about faerie tales. They seem like something right up my alley, and whenever I come across one I enjoy it, but somehow I've never been drawn into further study.

Want to win this book? Leave a comment on this post. Each commenter (excluding spammers, anonymous posters, or abusive commenters) will be entered into my monthly drawing. You have until midnight (Eastern) on the fifth of next month to enter. Open to US residents only. For more details, click here.

Editorials: Cut, Cut, Cut, Cut, Cut, Okay, Maybe We Cut Too Much

As you may remember, Nikki recently supplemented my inner editing skills with input from some of the folks over at OWW. I was initially . . . less than thrilled about this, but I've made my peace with it now.

Especially since they caught something important which I missed.

Yes, I was wrong again. This is happening with disturbing frequency.

I suppose I should first mention that the Muse is a bit rambly when starting out a new story. Between her love of every character that she pops into Nikki's head and Nikki's pantser writing style, the first few chapters of any project crossing my desk invariably have to go. Familiar was no different.

It may come a shock to those of you who have had the pleasure of reading the beginning of Familiar, but in the initial draft, Natasha spent three months just waiting for the action to start and hanging out with Billy. I think the Muse originally had bigger plans for Billy, but Nikki hated him and so he had to die instead. There were a few cute scenes there, but nothing was happening beyond developing a character who turned out to be completely irrelevant to the plot. So, when I took over, I had Nikki cut all that out and compress the timeline.

It would appear that I cut a bit too much. Two different reviewers from OWW asked questions which, after really thinking about where their understanding had gotten lost, indicated neither one of them believed Natasha would go to the bar with Billy. And they really didn't believe the rest of the litter would just let her. And they're right. Without three months of flirting away with a rather harmless version of Billy -- especially with those three months of buildup being replaced with a random meeting on the street -- it just doesn't make sense for her to go in there with her guard down.

Oops. In cutting out those opening scenes, we seem to have lost our main character's motivation for going to the place where the story's action begins. And she has to be there. She can't just miss the inciting incident.

So Nikki and I are going back to the drawing board this week. We can't put the original motivations back in. Three months of nothing to justify one date still doesn't seem like a good idea to me. Instead, we're enlisting the Muse's help and writing a new scene to bridge the gap. Hopefully the new scene will make things a little clearer. It might even help clean up some of the exposition in the bar scene, because I've never really liked having that in there anyway.

From My Bookshelf to Yours: February Winner!

The comments for all the February From My Bookshelf to Yours posts were closed last night and the random number generator has selected a winner.

Congratulations to Jackie B, who wins a copy of Kalayna Price's Twice Dead!

Jackie, please email me at nlberger(at)nlberger(dot)com with your mailing address so I can drop your book in the mail.

Be Intriguing, Not Confusing

There's a fine line, when writing the beginning scenes of a novel, between leaving the reader wanting more and leaving the reader totally confused. I'm still learning to walk it.

Back in the day, you could start out a novel with three or four chapters of worldbuilding, setting up your main characters in their ordinary, everyday lives before the inciting incident came along and turned those lives upside down. I think I've mentioned on this blog before that I was taught in elementary school to read at least the first fifty pages of any book before deciding if I liked it or not, because the beginning was almost always back story and set up. I'm not that old; elementary school wasn't that long ago.

Can you imagine trying to sell a novel like that today?

Authors are expected to grab the reader's attention within the first five pages. Actually, within the first page if possible. And it's recommended not to have any back story at all in the first fifty pages if you can swing it.

Action rules the opening pages these days. Dead bodies show up on page one. The lovers meet, and maybe even get around a few bases, by the end of the first chapter. Vampires/Werewolves/Zombies/Insert-other-random-horror/fantasy-creature-here turn up in the middle of the first exchange of dialogue. Sky pirates attack without warning.

High action openings like this are good in some ways. If the reader has met and likes our lovers, and their first romantic moments together have just been interrupted by an ex, or the heroine's father, or the boss, or the hero's finance, they've just got to keep turning pages to find out how those two crazy kids end up together.

If our plucky but naïve heroine ducks into the bathroom at a party, only to find a dead guy in a Goofy mask propped up on the toilet in the handicapped stall, the reader is probably going to want to know more about how she's going to handle that. And maybe why he was wearing a Goofy mask.

Turning pages is good. Wanting to know more is good. Those are the kinds of questions that sell books.

Still, you have to give your reader enough information to ground that action. Sky pirates are attacking! Is this normal? Do people in this world routinely get attacked by sky pirates? Is the main character in league with the sky pirates? Have they had a recent falling out? Or are they ancient enemies? And just what are sky pirates anyway?

If they're left wondering why all of this is happening, or thinking something along the lines of "why the hell would he do that?" or "why doesn't she just go to the police?" or "what was the writer smoking when they wrote this?" they may stop turning pages. They may put your book back on the shelf and go off in search of one that makes more sense.

For me, of course, as an author still trying to break into publishing, I have a long while before I need to worry about bookstore browsers flipping through the first pages of my books. But I'm pretty sure that leaving an agent or editor wondering what the heck is going on is a one-way ticket to Rejectionville, and that certainly isn't going to get me any closer to the browsing public.

Girl Talk Thursday: Evil Should Always Be Sexy

This week's topic: In a world without consequences, what kinky thing/fantasy would you try?

Character Participating: Natasha, from Familiar, a 294-year-old witch's familiar who spends her days slipping backward and forward through time, protecting newly-turned witches from demons, and shape-shifting into a tortoiseshell kitten. Yes, a kitten. You have a problem with that?

Okay, this is tricky for me. I've been dead for 276 years and I move around a lot. I don't usually stay in the same place and time for more than six months or so and I never go back. So a world without consequences -- at least, the kind of consequences I think you're getting at -- is kind of my life. Kinky things can't really do me much damage physically and I'm not worried about what anyone will think of me in the morning, because they'll never see me again.

There are those who would argue that this lifestyle could turn one into something of a . . . free spirit, could bring out one's wilder side. And on some level, I'm pretty sure that's true. I mean, I am the girl who recently had sex with one guy in a stairwell and then made out with another on his grandmother's sofa the next afternoon. Admittedly, there were drugs and supernatural forces at work there, but still . . .

Of course, my life isn't totally free of consequences. I mean, I fight demons to keep them from eating people and using their magic to take over the world. As consequences go, they don't get much weightier than the epic battle of good versus evil and the kill-or-be-killed mentality.

And, you know, now that I've brought them up, some of those demons are kinda hot. It's probably the whole forbidden fruit thing, or the inherent bad-boy thing that demons have going on. Or the fact that most of them can glamour themselves into looking however they want whenever they want. I mean, really, that's gotta be a handy skill to have. Just think of the possibilities . . .

Okay, maybe don't think about them too much.

Yeah, I'm probably going to regret saying this later -- and the boys in my litter will likely never let me live it down -- but really, I think I could stand to spend some good quality time with a few of my immortal enemies.

I'd still have to kill them in the morning, of course, before they kill me or one of my witches, but sometimes I wonder . . .

DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed in this blog post reflect those of the character in Nikki's mind, and are not necessarily those of the author herself. Be that as it may, demons, when properly glamoured, are kinda sexy.