The Girl in the Clockwork Collar

Before I start the review, sorry for being gone so long. However, I'm getting back onto the ROW80 challenge again. This round started a couple weeks ago, but who's counting, right? The idea is to make progress in writing, and that's what I have time to do again. The past few months have been challenging since I finally started getting signups for my crochet classes, working to finish my certification for teaching crochet (now completed and certificate received--Yay!), prepping for our semi-annual Open House at work (got 7 class signups from it, which is 7 more than the last one), and helping plan and run our Baha'i district's annual convention. My brain was a bit too swamped to think much about writing, though I did a bit here and there. Now that the big things are done and past, I can read, write, and craft (for myself) again. Whew!

So anyway, my goals to start with:
to write for at least an hour 4 days a week
read 1 new book a week and write a review for it
visit and comment on 5 ROWers' blogs a week

This should be easy enough to get me warmed up and back into the swing of it. I've already taken care of goal 2 with this post, and I spent at least an hour yesterday on writing, so that's a good start on goal 1 as well. Cheers to whatever goals you are working on yourselves, whether writing related or otherwise. Now on to the review.

The Girl in the Clockwork Collar by Kady Cross

In New York City, 1897, life has never been more thrilling--or dangerous.

Sixteen-year-old Finley Jayne and her 'straynge band of mysfits' have journeyed from London to America to rescue their friend Jasper, hauled off by bounty hunters. But Jasper is in the clutches of a devious former friend demanding a trade--the dangerous device Jasper stole from him...for the life of the girl Jasper loves.

One false move from Jasper and the strange clockwork collar around Mei's neck tightens. And tightens.

From the rough streets of lower Manhattan to elegant Fifth Avenue, the motley crew of teens with supernatural abilities is on Jasper's elusive trail. And they're about to discover how far they'll go for friendship.

More than ever, Finley Jayne will rely on powerful English duke Griffin King to balance her dark magic with her good side. Yet Griffin is at war with himself over his secret attraction to Finley...and will risk his life and reputation to save her. Sam, more machine than man, finds his moody heart tested by Irish lass Emily--whose own special abilities are no match for the darkness she discovers on the streets.

Now, to help those she's come to care for so deeply, Finley Jayne must infiltrate a criminal gang. Only problem is, she might like the dark side a little too much...

I didn't realize until after I'd started reading that there was a book before this one. The strong references to something that had recently happened, especially the residual effects from facing off with some villain, tipped me off. However, it didn't affect the plot of this book other than how the characters felt about each other because of it. The previous book is essentially treated like backstory, and very well done. Though I plan to go back and read The Girl in the Steel Corset anyway, just to satisfy my curiosity.

Jayne is rather feisty, and she was a lot of fun to follow. Trying to figure out how to balance different aspects of your persona can be tricky enough, but for Jayne, her sides were drastically contrasted. From what I understand, they were actually separate enough that it was like she was two people. Now she's fused into one persona but she still can choose which side she prefers. Not so easy when she likes fighting and flirting with danger, despite her good qualities. However, I can respect a girl who has such loyalty to her friends and works to see justice done.

Jasper and Griffin also get some POV time, and their parts help round out what all is going on in the story. I could really feel for Griffin's desperation in dealing with one particularly determined young heiress after his title, as well as his growing affection for Jayne, and Jasper's desire to get himself and Mei free from Dalton's control. Though Sam and Emily didn't have their own POV parts, their connections with each other and the others were filled in just fine through Jayne and Griffin.

In some ways this book reminds me of Soulless by Gail Carriger mixed with The Society of Steam: The Falling Machine by Andrew P. Mayer. Shouldn't be terribly surprising considering the genre and the time period they are all set. The Falling Machine is set in 1880 and Soulless is Victorian England. But I enjoyed all three, and if you like any of the other ones, you will probably dig into this one, too. I can't wait to read more by Cross now, and her author bio reminds me of a couple of my friends. She's now on my list of authors I want to meet.

Cinder

This week I found another nook in Azuranna's library with more books I haven't read yet. One is a book the mech fairies (and yes, many of my friends, too, hush) have been going on about for awhile now. Now I see why. Cinder by Marissa Meyer was better than it sounded even from the book blurb.

From the B&N website:

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . .

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

I read the book yesterday in huge gulps. This Cinderella spinoff provides a believable growing romance between Prince Kai and Cinder. They meet only a few pages in when he brings his broken android to her market stall for repair, jokingly saying it was a matter of notional security, though she suspects it might be less of a joke than he wanted to let on. Each time their paths cross after that, either accidentally or on purpose, they become more familiar with each other.

 

Cinder is one the few people the prince can trust as tensions mount across New Beijing and within the palace over concerns with the plague and the possibility of war with the feared Lunars. And Prince Kai not only treats her with respect, he asks her to call him by name without the title, something that flusters her a lot. Good thing she can't blush. Even more disconcerting, he asks her to be his personal guest at the upcoming ball, an offer she turns down.

 

Even if he really does want her there, self-preservation or not, she plans to escape her stepmother's control that night. Then it won't matter that he hasn't yet realized she's part mechanical, something she can't bear to confess and face his disgust over courting a mutant freak. But to save Kai from the evil plans of Lunar Queen Levana, she'll have to go to the ball anyway, even at the cost of the whole truth about herself being revealed for all to see.

The ending is gripping, not the ending I expected, but a cliffhanger, yet it feels right. The final words are perfect. But...ARRRGGGGG! I want the next book already! Gah!!!!!

Guess I'll have to read this one again before I have to take it back to the library.

Society of Steam and ROW80 goals

My thanks to Azuranna--the big blue library dragon, for those of you who haven't met her yet--for posting my notice about moving. I think she's been glad to have me around her library cave the past couple years though she says little to me directly. But now I'm back to reading and writing after getting mostly settled in to my new home. So, today I have both a book review and writing goals to share.

While wandering the cave and saying hello again to the resident sprites and fire lizards, I found a newish book on the shelves that I hadn't read yet. It's book 1 of The Society of Steam: The Falling Machine by Andrew P. Mayer. Since I was in the mood for a bit of steampunk, I pulled it out. I am so glad I did, but now I'm banging my head against the shelf because I want book 2 and it's not out yet. I sincerely hope he's working on it.

It's 1880, New York. Young ladies are expected to do what men tell them and make good marriages. They aren't allowed to vote or do heroic deeds. But Sarah Stanton, a young socialite, still hasn't given up her dream of joining the Paragons and helping them fight crime and villainy. The fact that her father is one of the Paragons only makes the restriction against joining more pronounced. As a child, she'd been allowed to roam the halls of the order's building and spend time with inventing genius and leader of the Paragons, Darby Dennis.

But after he's murdered right in front of her, Sarah is barred from the Hall by her father and ordered to have nothing more to do with the order. Now she must work with the mechanical man Darby created known as the Automaton in order to unravel the mystery behind the murder.

What they find along the way is a conspiracy involving one of the order's members, a traitor in their midst. To save the order and uphold her mentor's dying wish for her to help the Automaton, Sarah must become more than what society expects of her and become the hero she's always dreamed of being.

In retrospect, I think I'd call this book omniscient POV, though I didn't really notice while I was reading. There are multiple viewpoint characters, none of which are in deep perspective. There's a distant feel, but it works very well for the style. From what I've noticed about steampunk stories in general, they all tend to be distant, more observational, which is much like stories actually written in the 1800's. I thought it was very done, so if you want an example of how to write this way even if you aren't into steampunk, I recommend this book. And the steampunk elements are mostly restricted to the heroes and villains, so it doesn't play a huge part in society as a whole. Steampunk-lite, I suppose you could say. Whatever you want to call it, I'd say read the book.

ROW80 Goals:
1) Write for a minimum of 1 hour or 200 words (whichever comes second) 5 days a week.
2) Read at least 5 ROW80 blogs each check-in.
3) Write 2-3 blog posts each week.

I think there'd been something else I wanted as a goal, but I'm a bit distracted right now. Too much talking going on in the room. But this is a good start. We'll see how I do by Wed's check-in.

Worldbuilding in progress

While I'm letting my muse mutter in the background on how to fill a short gap in my current WIP (after finishing a rather intense pair of scenes for my two MCs, particularly for the mage), I decided to ponder on some of the worldbuilding for their story.

I don't sit down and create a world, then find a story. Characters and situations comes first, sometimes when I'm not ready for them. Sort of like this story. Rather out of the blue, I imagined the meeting between this cursed young woman and an aging mage. It was going to be more of a semi-comedic fantasy love story, but it's become more of a epic fantasy adventure with kingdom politics and love to provide complications.

The comedy angle would have been lots of fun. You know, a light-weight fluff fantasy novel with only a brush against the idea that looks don't have to be important, good for mental dessert. I'd have loved reading it. But I haven't the foggiest idea how to write that way. I don't read much fluff, only when I'm in the mood for something breezy. So when I started trying to implement the idea and the world started filling in around them, their personal histories became much more important, giving the tone a serious angle. But then that's what I read most.

Some of the setting history has shaped up just from writing stuff that the characters are thinking and talking about, but this past week I hit upon the need for having a solid way for how characters in the setting would talk about magic. Though it will be teaching my readers "how things work," the upcoming conversations themselves will reveal the differences in what each knows about the topic.

After all, I know some basics in fine art, but I don't know much about advanced technique or the best supplies to use for each style. Some of my customers at work know even less, so the conversations are interesting sometimes. ;) Plus some areas I'm rather good at, like sewing, or getting better at, like beading, so when people have questions, I can provide greater assistance. I'm trying to keep that manner in mind when one character teaches another about something. It's all filtered through what they know or don't know on the topic as well as their opinion and experience with it.

So I think I've nearly got the basics for how magic works figured out including terminology. Now I've got more of the world trying to form up in my head, like what technological developments are available in order to make the world less of a stock fantasy world. One rather neat site I found this morning while looking up Renaissance technology is a gamer's history notes from creating the world used for a homebrew game. It's specifically stated that the notes are not strictly historically accurate due to the slant towards a fantasy game, but it makes a great overview.

After following one of the links at the bottom to its new addy, I also found The Medieval Technology Pages, which is supposed to be more accurate. I haven't finished looking through it, but there are pages on a variety of daily life items like artesian wells, hops, soap, and windmills.

Ideas are marching in my head for upping the basic tech level in my world while still keeping guns and gunpowder out of it. Time to go think on how to integrate some of these ideas.

Hope the rest of you are having a productive Monday, too.

To err is human...

...To really foul things up requires a computer.

I thought I was going to be all big-girl and all and transfer my files over all by myself. I'm not too shabby at working a computer. I know what things are, and I use my regular programs just fine. I shouldn't need my hubby to do this for me.

Ha. Haha. Funny me. I knew just enough to get myself messed up.

The salesman at the Apple store told us about Migration Assistant. It can move my programs over for me. Bad idea. Because I knew less than I thought I knew, I tried it instead of doing the safe and slow way by copy/paste from old to new over the home network. I know how to do that, but I thought I was going to be clever and use the speedy way. Speed is not good when you don't know exactly what you are doing or what to expect when it happens. Speed just makes bad things happen faster.

MA doesn't copy then paste, so that you can go back if you mess up. It cuts and pastes. If you delete anything to try again because it didn't do what you expected, too bad for you. You now have no copies of those files.

So, bye bye iTunes library. I have a bunch of empty folders. Even though iTunes has no obligation to restore my purchases--it's in the terms and conditions--I still wrote them to explain what happened and beg them to do so anyway. Even if I can't get everything back, getting a significant portion of it will go a long way to helping me out. The free podcasts are easy enough to redownload, but even with taking out the songs I loaded via CD, I had a lot of music on there, not to mention the couple movies and several show episodes I'd purchased via iTunes. That's a lot of money. I'm hoping whoever reads my plea will take pity on me. My most recent purchase was just a few days ago, too. Pout.

In using MA to transfer my music over, I also let it move my documents and photos over. They suffered the same fate. However, those aren't completely gone since I did copy ALL of those onto my flashdrive. I am quivering at how close I came to destroying a few years of work, not to mention lots of cute pictures that may not be on any other device. Scary! Since I avoided that fate, I am merely sniping at myself for idiocy rather than being in a severe depressive fugue right now.

Backup, backup, backup. You've heard it before. It's no joke. I don't backup as often as I should, but I am so grateful I did yesterday.

But other than proving how fast a computer can help a human wipe out tons of data, I do love my new one. I just finished loaded my documents via my flashdrive, so I will try to do a little work this afternoon before my son gets home. It'll be easier to write now that my battery lasts more than a couple minutes and my power cord isn't half broken. (I can sit where and how I want again.) My screen image isn't affected by the angle of the screen to my eyes. And the MagSafe cord connection is so cool.

New computer! (and blog thoughts)

Squiggly happy dance! I am on my way to go buy a new laptop at the Apple store in Buffalo. My iBook G4 is finally wearing out, but it has survived long enough that I can get files transferred over. I made backups of my documents, photos, and bookmarks (almost as important as the documents). Even though I could get a PC laptop for considerably cheaper, Macs just appeal to me more. The MagSafe power cord connection is just one significant selling point of the MacBook Pro. No yanking the laptop off its perch again because my feet snag the cord when I'm getting up. *sheepish look* The MagSafe ones just pop off. (Not that I plan to do that again, but I'll feel better anyway.)

New computer. Squeee!

For other news, I am shifting my posting schedule. Mondays just have not been working well, since they have turned into errand and activity days (my hubby's day off) and I don't get much chance to write stuff up on the weekend. But Wednesday/Friday feels like a lopsided week, so I will give Tuesday/Friday a try. I'm also considering some of those blog hop events. Meeting people is fun, and most of the hops seem to be on Fridays. Since I don't want to stop my regular feature or double up, I'll just alternate weeks. Please tell me if you have any favorite blog hops.

Filk Friday: Do-It-Yourself, a computer song

One of my family friends is a programmer, so when I got into filk, I started collecting computer related songs to share with her. Do-It-Yourself, also known as Mainframe, is a catchy little song about building your own computer from the things you find at home. You can tell Bill Sutton had fun with this song. The snark about the computer companies that were around at the time is smirk-tastic. Especially the cracks on IBM. This came from his tape: Past Due. It's an old song, and I only know about half of the references in the chorus, but it's entertaining anyway.