tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18677034.post6615782316288017089..comments2023-07-06T09:03:00.051-05:00Comments on K. Z. Snow: I can haz book to read!K. Z. Snowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01373906799954038740noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18677034.post-74157496356197876232010-07-25T18:30:29.718-05:002010-07-25T18:30:29.718-05:00Haven't read Normal Miguel yet, but I devoured...Haven't read <i>Normal Miguel</i> yet, but I devoured the <i>"... fifty-pound fruit cake. Laced with mescaline"</i> awhile back and really enjoyed it! I like your comparison -- it's very perceptive! <i>Perdido Street Station</i> was definitely a trippy book. ;)Average Readerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03955137026396047753noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18677034.post-34545692199035573572010-07-23T14:51:30.110-05:002010-07-23T14:51:30.110-05:00*falls down laughing hysterically**falls down laughing hysterically*Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12959009113795804133noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18677034.post-11085492518568973972010-07-23T14:38:16.825-05:002010-07-23T14:38:16.825-05:00Hey, I smell a guest blog in the making! ;-)Hey, I smell a guest blog in the making! ;-)K. Z. Snowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01373906799954038740noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18677034.post-65553952153174719012010-07-23T13:59:15.886-05:002010-07-23T13:59:15.886-05:00LOL - what, you don't want to get the thesis t...LOL - what, you don't want to get the thesis through interlibrary loan?! ;)<br /><br />Basically, by maintaining a consistent identity, making reasoned arguments, engaging in intelligent discussion, and providing support for all that without being obnoxious. For example, writing "My ten years experience as a writer have led me to..." adds to your credibility... unless you add that to every interaction you have. Then it detracts.<br /><br />You build your credibility/reputation, then maintain it through more of the same. Common sense, really!Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12959009113795804133noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18677034.post-54104539923548889352010-07-23T13:28:21.628-05:002010-07-23T13:28:21.628-05:00And how, pray tell, is that?
:-DAnd how, pray tell, is that? <br /><br />:-DK. Z. Snowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01373906799954038740noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18677034.post-80892064540723806532010-07-23T11:15:58.865-05:002010-07-23T11:15:58.865-05:00Yup. My MS thesis was on how people establish etho...Yup. My MS thesis was on how people establish ethos (their character and credibility) online. :)Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12959009113795804133noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18677034.post-72704238722845712612010-07-23T10:27:15.279-05:002010-07-23T10:27:15.279-05:00Chris ... rhetoric? Seriously? Gah. (And I thou...Chris ... rhetoric? Seriously? Gah. (And I thought I was weird for being fixated on Herman Melville!)K. Z. Snowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01373906799954038740noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18677034.post-23432048454210590432010-07-23T10:23:37.421-05:002010-07-23T10:23:37.421-05:00Ooo, I did like League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,...Ooo, I did like <i>League of Extraordinary Gentlemen</i>, but I think I've blocked the romantic aspects of it from my mind (probably because they were m/f *g*).<br /><br />I haven't read much steampunk -- very little, actually -- but the incessant emphasis on machinery would get right the hell on my nerves.<br /><br />As is the case with any genre or subgenre, too many writers become too slavish, I think, to its conventions. That happened with urban fantasy, which I honestly can't bear to read anymore. Every work seems like a clone of every other work.K. Z. Snowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01373906799954038740noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18677034.post-89437068014780700002010-07-23T10:16:50.207-05:002010-07-23T10:16:50.207-05:00Heh, grad school finished off the part of my brain...Heh, grad school finished off the part of my brain that might have enjoyed those types of read. :) And I was going to get my PhD in Rhetoric... but I came to my senses in time.Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12959009113795804133noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18677034.post-68894667364225116652010-07-23T10:04:28.346-05:002010-07-23T10:04:28.346-05:00"I think the reason it's still on my shel..."<i>I think the reason it's still on my shelf is because very literate and literary books exhaust me."</i><br /><br />Yup. And that was a strange realization for me, considering how close I came to being an English professor. As Katrina said, when you read and/or write erotic romance long enough, your tastes are bound to change.K. Z. Snowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01373906799954038740noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18677034.post-85993145594988654122010-07-23T10:03:24.223-05:002010-07-23T10:03:24.223-05:00Aw thanks! But see, that's what I look for -- ...Aw thanks! But see, that's what I look for -- subtle worldbuilding. The books I've recently tried to read either overdid it, or didn't do it enough. They didn't come off as very romantic, either, and by "romantic" I don't necessarily mean romance (although that may have helped.) Perhaps it's due to my time spent in the goth scene, but steampunk for me is more romantic than it is technical. A lot of what's getting published by mainstream New York as "steampunk" is just too cut and dry for my taste, with the authors perhaps focusing too much on mechanical inventions and steam-vacuuming the life out of it. These titles just didn't have that otherworldly "weird fiction" vibe that, say, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen does, which IMO balances all aspects of the genre very nicely.Katrina Strausshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11435994502376676069noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18677034.post-22057397896635791042010-07-23T09:56:13.296-05:002010-07-23T09:56:13.296-05:00Katrina, you just might like PSS if it's a &qu...Katrina, you just might like PSS if it's a "visual calliope" you're looking for. It's certainly that, in spades -- in fact, so much so that the worldbuilding began to weigh on me. And there <i>is</i> what I'd call "character development." But I just couldn't warm up to the ways in which the characters were being developed. <br /><br />I think the book has a surfeit of intellectualism, which tends ultimately to have a chilling effect on me. Hell, I didn't even understand some of the words!<br /><br />Your <i>Sleight of Hand</i> and Ginn Hale's <i>Wicked Gentlemen</i> are FAR more to my tastes. They're much more subtly crafted.K. Z. Snowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01373906799954038740noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18677034.post-27455190476071111132010-07-23T09:42:21.511-05:002010-07-23T09:42:21.511-05:00I think the reason it's still on my shelf is b...I think the reason it's still on my shelf is because very literate and literary books exhaust me.Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12959009113795804133noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18677034.post-22713417793512578262010-07-23T09:41:16.582-05:002010-07-23T09:41:16.582-05:00Chris, don't make a decision based on my impre...Chris, don't make a decision based on my impressions! I was intrigued enough to get about a hundred pages into it, but, like I said, it just proved too thick to keep plowing through. What's more, the "hero," a scientific <i>wunderkind</i>, was a big, fat slob and the "heroine" (I'm not even sure these terms are relevant here) was like 80% scarab -- not a shifter, either, but a fulltime mostly-beetle.<br /><br />It's a highly literate book, but I'm assuming a reader has to be a hardcore fan of edgy fantasy to get into it.K. Z. Snowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01373906799954038740noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18677034.post-56477282479778682152010-07-23T09:26:16.920-05:002010-07-23T09:26:16.920-05:00I like your analogy, Tam!
The author's bio sa...I like your analogy, Tam!<br /><br />The author's bio says he lives in Tijuana with his partner but teaches middle school in San Ysidro, CA, neither of which is near the location of the story. But he's "traveled extensively" through Mexico.<br /><br />It's a very sweet, upbeat book. No explicit sex, although there are many frank references to sexual encounters.K. Z. Snowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01373906799954038740noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18677034.post-8548395130354778922010-07-23T08:29:31.054-05:002010-07-23T08:29:31.054-05:00Maybe I've been reading & writing romance ...Maybe I've been reading & writing romance too long (j/k with "too long", folks, do not quote me out of context on that!) but I've tried to read a few steampunk novels recently and couldn't get past chapter one. I'd conjecture it was lack of character development in favor of worldbuilding, but the worldbuilding didn't suck me in, either. When I read steampunk -- or any fantasy genre -- I expect to be immersed in that world. With steampunk in particular, I want to be caught up in a visual calliope. Just did not happen with these titles, which I won't name, because well, the titles elude me, they were that lackluster for me. Blah. Maybe I'm just comparing them too much to Gibson/Sterling, or to the lovely "soft steam" musings of our own peers.Katrina Strausshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11435994502376676069noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18677034.post-38256359638585679642010-07-23T07:02:19.014-05:002010-07-23T07:02:19.014-05:00I have Perdido Street Station on my TBR shelf. It&...I have Perdido Street Station on my TBR shelf. It's been there for a while. I don't see that changing anytime soon!Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12959009113795804133noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18677034.post-30076488655506576652010-07-23T06:54:28.374-05:002010-07-23T06:54:28.374-05:00I have heard nothing but positive things about Nor...I have heard nothing but positive things about <i>Normal Miguel</i>. I know the author just joined t Good Reads group and he lives in Mexico so he definitely knows the environment and culture (one would presume). <br /><br />Books are a bit like people. Sometimes you know they are as slob, and drink milk straight from the carton and don't mow the grass often enough, but you love them anyway. :-)Tamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15495571402942021799noreply@blogger.com