'Bitter Blood' Morganville Vampires #13 by Rachel Caine

 Received from the Publisher 

From the BLURB:

For years, the human and vampire residents of Morganville have managed to coexist in peace. But thanks to the eradication of the parasitic creatures known as the draug, the vampires of Morganville have now been freed of their usual constraints. With the vampires indulging their every whim, the town's human population is determined to hold onto their lives by taking up arms. College student Claire Danvers, with ties to both humans and vampires, isn't about to take sides.

To make matters worse, a television show comes to Morganville searching for ghosts, just as vampire and human politics collide. Now, Claire and her friends have to figure out how to keep the peace without ending up on the nightly news . . . or worse.

 ** Warning! This review contains spoilers of previous 'Morganville Vampires' books **

The humans of vampire-run town, Morganville, once thought their deadly tyrants were unbeatable. The town had once risen against their vampire foe, but were beaten down severely and put rebellion out of their heads forever. Not to mention the human residents have also paid for a bitter warfare that raged between Morganville’s founder, Amelie, and her father, Bishop.

No, if there’s one thing Morganville has taught its human residents it’s that you can’t beat them, and you wouldn’t want to join them.

But then something changed – a new enemy came to town and was a great threat, not just to humans, but especially to vampires. The draug lived in the Morganville water supply; they fed on vampires and were all but unbeatable. For the first time, possibly in history, humans witnessed a villain greater than the vampires – and the draug came very close to wiping them out. Forever.

The draug would have succeeded; if it hadn’t been for the humans helping their vampire neighbours defeat them and take back the town.

It seemed that the defeat of the draug marked a turning in Morganville, and especially Amelia. The town founder could no longer ignore the fact that the food chain had to change: the vampires needed humans, and for more than just food. The draug’s defeat heralded a new promise of human-vampire peace, so decreed by Amelia.

It has been mere weeks since the draug incident, and infamous Morganville residents of the Glass House – Claire, Shane, Eve and vampire Michael – are hopeful of a new age in the vampire town. But their hopes are quickly dashed in the wake of Michael and Eve’s wedding – the first vampire/human union has been met with hostility from both sides, and the awesome foursome of the Glass House are once again relying on themselves for safety, when the death threats and attacks start piling up.

But the Glass House has also expanded – local girl, Miranda, died in the house during the draug battle and now haunts its premises as Michael once did, before turning vampire.

And while the Glass House undergoes changes – of the ghostly and honeymoon variety – Morganville is also being turned on its head. Oliver is whispering in Amelie’s ear, suggesting that the vampires should once again reclaim their place as human overlords. His pretty persuasion could see legalized hunts reinstated, which in turn insights human-supporter Captain Obvious, to again call for human rebellion.

The town of Morganville is again descending into chaos and destruction – but at who’s urging?

And the cherry on top of this swirling disaster is a television crew from a popular ghost-hunt show coming to town, looking to unearth Morganville’s deadly secrets.

‘Bitter Blood’ is the thirteenth book in Rachel Caine’s ridiculously popular young adult paranormal series, ‘Morganville Vampires’.

So much happened in twelfth book, ‘Black Dawn’, that it’s a welcome head-first jump into ‘Bitter Blood’ which is set a few weeks after that book. A mere few weeks since the vampires’ only enemy, the draug, were defeated and the vampire race gifted with a new sense of immortality. A few weeks since Michael Glass and Eve Rosser declared their undying love for one another and got married, without Amelie’s wishes, and to the disgust of vampires and humans alike.

When ‘Bitter Blood’ opens, there’s an odd mix of hope and despair in the air. Hope, because Amelie did make a promise at the end of ‘Black Dawn’ to rebuild Morganville with a more human-friendly foundation. And despair, because despite this uneasy truce between humans and vampires, the very embodiment of this olive branch is being threatened – the human Eve and her vampire husband, Michael, are being bullied and receiving death threats for their mixed marriage.

And then the creeping despair winds ever closer, as once again Caine offers alternate character perspectives beyond just Claire’s, and as she began in ‘Bite Club’, we have chapters from Amelie, Oliver, Michael and Myrnin’s. Amelie and Oliver’s chapters are particularly disturbing – as we read Oliver’s influence over Amelie, whispering in her ear that humans need to be re-taught their place in the Morganville hierarchy. Humans feel the unease in the air, and a new rebellion looms closer;

When Claire didn’t speak, Hannah shook her head, leant over, and picked up the weapon. She seated it in a holster under her arm. ‘There’s a war coming,’ she said. ‘A real war. There’s not going to be any room for people like you standing in the middle, trying to make peace. I’m trying to save your life.’
‘You always wanted peace.’
‘I did. But when you can’t have peace, there’s only one thing you can aim for, Claire, and that’s winning the war the best and maybe the bloodiest way you can.’

I had many questions after ‘Black Dawn’ and the defeat of the draug – arguably the last creatures on the planet capable of destroying vampires. I did wonder what was next; if the vampires were made to feel secure that they were top of the food chain once again. Where would the conflict be then? But pretty soon ‘Bitter Blood’ answers that question in a most resounding way – namely that vampires’ biggest threat is themselves. They are, quite literally, their own worst enemy. Power hungry hubris has been the fall of many great empires and leaders – and the vamps are no different.

Fascinating as the power-plays of the vampires are in ‘Bitter Blood’, it’s also the evolution of the Glass House gang that’s so interesting in this thirteenth book. Things undoubtedly had to change after Michael and Eve’s wedding – partly because of town hostility, but also between them. ‘Husband’ and ‘wife’ hold more weight than ‘boyfriend’ and ‘girlfriend’, and it’s interesting to see how their union is changing the awesome foursome dynamic – and also forcing Claire and Shane to ask themselves how far along they’ve come in their relationship too.

Without getting spoiler-y I will also delight fans and say that Myrnin and Claire are veeeeeery interesting in this book. Very interesting indeed (warning: may induce squealing-hysteria).

We have only two more books before Rachel Caine’s epic ‘Morganville Vampires’ series comes to a close – leaving us with a grand total of fifteen books. ‘Bitter Blood’ certainly ends in such a way as to let fans know that Caine is gearing up for the big finale … the ripples of change are most clearly felt in Claire, our main protagonist from book one, and by the end of ‘Bitter Blood’ she has a lot of big questions to ask of herself – where Shane, school and her own identity are concerned. I’m sad to think that the end is nigh for ‘Morganville Vampires’, a smart young adult vampire series that I’ve been reading and loving since 2006 – but I am most intrigued as to where Rachel Caine is leading Claire, and readers, on this path to finale…

5/5

‘Saga’ Volume One by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

 From the BLURB:

From New York Times bestselling writer BRIAN K.VAUGHAN (Y: THE LAST MAN, EX MACHINA) and critically acclaimed artist FIONA STAPLES (MYSTERY SOCIETY, NORTH 40), SAGA is the sweeping tale of one young family fighting to find their place in the worlds. When two soldiers from opposite sides of a never-ending galactic war fall in love, they risk everything to bring a fragile new life into a dangerous old universe. Fantasy and science fiction are wed like never before in a sexy, subversive drama for adults. This specially priced volume collects the first arc of the smash hit series The Onion A.V. Club calls "the emotional epic Hollywood wishes it could make."

We meet Marko and Alana the day their daughter is born. In the back of an old body shop, on a star called Cleave, little Hazel is born to parents who were once on opposite sides of an ages old war. Now, with the birth of their hybrid daughter, Marko and Alana’s old armies have even more reason to find the new family and end them. . .

Marko is from planet Wreath. He was a prisoner and Alana his guard; she was from planet Landfall. Both of them decided their love was more important than continuing to fight in a war that neither planet can remember the origins of.

But now Hazel has been born, and there is a buzz in the Landfall Capital. Prince Robot IV is being taken out of his peaceful reprieve and sent to hunt down Marko and Alana – making sure to end them before word gets out to either side of their AWOL treachery in the name of enemy ‘love’. Meanwhile, Wreath’s people have hired freelance assassins to kill the dissenting parents, and return with baby Hazel alive. On the case are two of the galaxy’s most successful assassins – The Will, along with his trusty Lying Cat. Then there’s The Stalk – who never misses her target.

‘Saga’ Volume One is the first graphic novel instalment in a new intergalactic series from Image Comics, with story by Brian K. Vaughan and art by Fiona Staples.

I am a fan of graphic novels – but I admit, I've been very conservative in my graphic reading habits. I tried to get into the spin-off ‘Buffy’ comic series back in 2007, because it was touted as being Season eight and I was still feeling the ‘Buffy’ void after the show’s end. But I just couldn’t get into it – Joss Whedon’s particular brand of snark works best for me on TV. So then I limited my reading to graphic adaptations of the book series I already loved – Diana Gabaldon’s ‘The Exile’ story set in her ‘Outlander’ universe. I love the graphic adaptations of Patricia Briggs’s ‘Mercy Thompson’ and Gail Carriger’s ‘Parasol Protectorate’ series. I journeyed outside my comfort zone when I read the brilliant children’s graphic novel ‘The Deep: Here Be Dragons’ with story by Tom Taylor, and art by James Brouwer. So I was well and truly ready to delve even deeper into the graphic novel world, when a blog I frequent by the name of Gawker wrote up a glowing piece on this new series called ‘Saga’. It sounded dark, smart and complex – but it was mention of a (literal) star-crossed lover’s story that really hooked me.

‘Saga’ is so, so, so good! I was laughing from the first page – and from the first panel glimpse of Marko, I was swooning. The story begins right in the thick of action – with Alana giving birth to Hazel and soldiers from both Wreath and Landfall breaking in to take the family down – because word of enemy’s falling in love and starting a family would be one hell of a bad PR campaign for this war of no end.

The series is very clever and makes societal and political commentaries that are reflective and relevant to the modern-day. It’s in the things like Landfall royalty, Prince Robot IV, having a television for a head – that, I think, says something about corrupt media’s tyrannical hold over society. Then there’s the pornographic planet, Sextillion, where hired assassin The Will travels when he’s down on his luck hunting the new parents and wants to drown his sorrows in sex. Sextillion is all bright lights, paid flesh and beautiful depravity – but, as The Will soon discovers, it has a sick and seedy underbelly . . . again, this is no doubt commentary on the sexualisation of our own society – and in a particularly horrendous scene, Vaughan will really have you thinking about the slippery slope of carnal consumerism.

I did appreciate how very, very clever ‘Saga’ was – for all that’s between the panels, if you will. But what made this graphic novel so brilliant was the story. In particular, I loved our narrator; an older Hazel is recounting the story of her parent’s love and her birth from somewhere in the future. She peppers her reminiscence with references to life now. At one point she muses; “From my very first day, I was pursued by men. All of them tried to hurt me, but only one managed to break my heart . . . Sorry, getting ahead of myself.” I loved that Hazel had a voice in this novel, it means that though she’s an adorable (but silent) baby when this story starts, we do get a sense of her personality through her omniscient narration – more than that, her hints about what the future holds makes me very, very hopeful for a long, epic series in which we eventually catch up in the story to follow an older Hazel.

‘Saga’ is very much an adult graphic novel (if the mention of Sextillion wasn’t enough of a tip-off). There are graphic sex scenes, and violent deaths. It’s also scary as all get out . . . when I turned the page and saw an image of spider-like assassin The Stalk I felt my palms begin to sweat. It’s really a testament to Fiona Staple’s utterly beautiful, detailed and sometimes creepy artwork. She’s amazing – and I think I will have to trawl through her backlist and read absolutely everything she’s put her artistic licence to.

The fact that ‘Saga’ is so adult is also why I liked it so much – it’s complex and far-reaching, set on an epic scale and concerning AWOL lovers, broken-hearted assassins and royal soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder. This is really a series to sink your teeth into.

I will also say that ‘Saga’ has a very cinematic quality to it. I have high-hopes that because Brian K. Vaughan has a Hollywood history (he was a writer/producer on TV show ‘Lost’) that there is every chance this brilliant series could be adapted . . . I’m especially elated to discover that Vaughan wrote for the Buffy season 8 comic series, because while reading ‘Saga’ I kept thinking that it had a Joss Whedon quality to it – with hints of ‘Firefly’. It’s in Alana’s snarky comments, a tangled back-story between The Will and The Stalk and a clear long-reaching story arc.

I love, love, loved ‘Saga’. I’m now officially addicted. Issue number seven has recently come out, with instalment eight due later in November. I need it – seriously! It has become a delicious drug, delving into this intergalactic love story and I just can’t wait to go back. . .

5/5

‘Kissing Tennessee: and Other Stories from the Stardust Dance’ by Kathi Appelt

From the BLURB:

Mason and Carrie Marie can't get up the courage to ask each other to dance. Russ's girlfriend has died, and now he's just trying to live without her. Peggy Lee has grown up with Tennessee--how can she ever think of him as more than a friend?

In these moving tales and others, Kathi Appelt captures the sometimes amusing, sometimes touching missteps of some unforgettable students, who come together one last time for the most memorable night of their young lives.

It’s Friday May 31st. Between 8pm and 11pm the Dogwood Junior High cafeteria will be transformed with cardboard stars and sparkling moons hanging from wire, and the Rot Whilers belt out tunes for the eighth graders. This is the Stardust Dance – a night when boys can be daring, one lucky girl will be crowned Stardust Queen and magic might just happen. . .

First published in 2000, ‘Kissing Tennessee: and Other Stories from the Stardust Dance’ is a collection of young adult short stories by Kathi Appelt.

Sometimes I judge a book by its cover and decide to read based purely on the pretty. Very occasionally am I persuaded to a book because of the title alone – but that’s what happened with Appelt’s short story collection. I just love, love, loved that whimsically intriguing title: ‘Kissing Tennessee: and Other Stories from the Stardust Dance’ – it’s lush and lovely and gave me visions of soft blue lights, sweaty palms, best pinching shoes and hands-on-shoulders dancing, *sigh*. Sadly, I think I built the title up too much in my mind and came to this book with too high expectations because while it’s by no means bad, ‘Kissing Tennessee’ didn’t leave me with that butterflies-in-stomach, heart-in-mouth feeling I was desperately hoping for.

Some of the vignettes in Appelt’s book really worked for me and I loved them. But the stories I liked best were actually the violent/sad ones . . . which just so happened to be the stories that had the strongest connection to the Stardust Dance theme, and were (in my opinion) the hardest-hitting and best written. Take, for instance, ‘Just a Kiss, Annie P.’ in which a boy laments the death of his childhood crush, whose memory comes back to haunt him while he’s dancing with another girl. In ‘The Right Word’, Becca Scott sits in a toilet stall at Dogwood Junior High while the Stardust Dance carries on without her. As she starts crying and heaving, she reads a year’s worth of graffiti scribbled on the bathroom walls, and through a few choice words starts piecing her story together – telling how her boyfriend led her away from the dance, and into the woods. . . 

Becca was there, in the dark woods. This very night. There, instead of at the Stardust Dance. She slipped out the bathroom window and let herself be led into the dark, dark woods, far away from the Dogwood Junior High cafeteria, with its dancers and drummer.

BONE OF TRUTH

-    ‘The Right Word’

It’s hard to read those two really quite hard-hitting and beautifully written stories, and then switch back to vignettes in which the high-achiever and the slacker desperately want to be each other’s last dance.

Don’t get me wrong; some of those more relaxed and sweet short stories were okay, and offered some nice moments you’d expect from an eighth grade dance;

Flash! She opened her eyes just in time to see Sky Williams take their picture.
And that’s when the floating had started. The cafeteria floor just fell away beneath her feet. And even though Tennessee is holding her hand, she’s still way up off the ground, like one of those helium balloons, floating up there with the clouds and the comets and the birds.

-    ‘Kissing Tennessee’

But then there were some short stories I felt were trying too hard for a flimsy connection to the Stardust Dance theme. Like ‘Rachel’s Sister’ a story about two girls abused by their bible-thumping father. I think Appelt could have made this story fit better into the school-dance theme, but instead most of the action in this short happened in the past and at the girl’s home (as opposed to being about their dad, maybe, embarrassing them at the dance by dragging them home?).

I was impressed that Appelt covered a variety of teen topics and ‘issues’ with these short stories, without ever making it feel like she was ticking boxes. For instance, the story ‘Starbears’, about a young boy trying to grapple with his strong feelings for his best friend, was subtle and all the more powerful for being so understated;

Then suddenly the message was clear, blazing in midair, like a comet.

-    ‘Starbears’

The whole book comes to about 115-pages, and I think I wanted a little bit more. I would have liked to spend time in more stories than others, or just had more stories altogether (for such a whimsical title, I do think a surrealist story would have been a nice one to add to the mix? Or even a ghost story – just something out of left-field).  I wasn’t blown away by this collection like I wanted to be, but I would recommend this to young readers because Appelt manages to cover some quite weighty topics in short, and bittersweet vignettes.

3/5

'Alien vs Alien' international give away! One week only!

'Alien vs Alien' is the new, stellar space opera from Gini Koch - the sixth book in her epic 'Katherine "Kitty" Katt' series.

I loved this book so much, and I was very lucky to receive two uncorrected proof copies of the novel! So if you can't stand the hair-pulling wait until 'Alien vs Alien' is released on December 4 - never fear! I'm going to give away my extra copy of the book to one lucky follower.

All you have to do is follow the instructions below, and answer me this question: 

Which two famous aliens would you like to see battle it out?

★

How to enter: 

★ Become a follower of my blog (if you aren't already)

★ Leave a comment on this blog post, answering the question: "Which two famous aliens would you like to see battle it out?"

★ Include a way to contact you (e-mail addy is fine) additionally, you can also leave your twitter handle if you check that more often than your email.

★ One post per entrant

★ This is an international give away - so anyone can enter!

★ Contest closes November 7th - it's a very quick, week-long give away to ensure a copy of the book arrives before the official December 4 release date (otherwise, what's the point?) For this reason, if the first winner I draw doesn't get in contact with me within 24-hours, I will have to re-draw and find a new winner.

★ I will announce the lucky winner on November 9th

'Alien vs Alien' Katherine 'Kitty' Katt #6 by Gini Koch

 Received from the Publisher

From the BLURB:

Jeff and Kitty Katt-Martini and the rest of the American Centaurion Diplomatic Corps are still recovering from their introduction to Washington D.C. politics, parties, and conspiracies. So when compromising pictures arrive, no one’s too surprised. They’re also the least of anyone’s worries.

Evil androids running amok, birds of all kinds and from all places creating havoc, a Senator trapped in an ever-tightening web of intrigue, and escalating international tensions all seem tough but manageable. But the disappearance of Jeff Martini and Charles Reynolds during the International One World Festival signals more than the usual nastiness — and it looks like even ACE can’t help them.

Then new trouble arrives in old packages and even with the best hackers in the world, beings from near and far, the full might of Earth’s military, and the Wonder Twins on their side, Centaurion Division’s outmanned and outgunned.

Now Kitty’s racing against the clock to find not only Jeff and Chuckie, but to keep the peace between Middle Eastern countries, all while searching for the bases of super-soldier operations — to stop them or die trying.

This review contains spoilers of all other books in the 'Katherine "Kitty" Katt' series

Kitty Katt-Martini is finally settling into her new life as Ambassador’s wife and member of the American Centaurion Diplomatic Corps. Yes, Kitty’s settling right into politics – she’s dodging calls from nosy senators, sweet-talking paparazzi and soon finds herself embroiled in a sex scandal with her best friend, Chuckie. It’s just another day in Washington, really, and the helter-skelter life of Katherine ‘Kitty’ Katt.

Except Kitty and Chuckie’s ‘scandal’ is a complete lie based around very convincing photoshop pictures. And Jeff (normally King of Jealousy Town) isn’t even mad or suspicious. This might have something to do with the fact that he’s had to stay away from his family while Jamie-Kat’s been teething, and Jeff’s astute empathy skills have been causing him no end of trouble where his daughter’s pain is concerned. Or it might be due to the fact that Jeff, Chuckie and Christopher have bigger fish to fry. Like escalating international tensions, evil androids and unexpected visitors from ‘out of town’.

But just when things can’t get any worse for Kitty & Co – Chuckie and Jeff go missing while at the International One World Festival. Suddenly androids, birds and blackmail photos seem paltry in comparison to finding Kitty’s husband and best friend. In fact, the fate of the world may very well depend on it.

‘Alien vs. Alien’ is the sixth book in Gini Koch’s blockbuster series, ‘Katherine “Kitty” Katt’.

I know summer is near in Australia when the flip-flops are slipped on, the smell of barbeques fills the air and I have a hot new Gini Koch novel in my hands.

We’re now six books into this epic, intergalactic series and Koch keeps the curveballs coming and the action jam-packed. ‘Alien vs. Alien’ is a particularly interesting instalment in the series because it’s really kind of the Katherine “Kitty” Katt show; what with her husband, the indescribably scrumptious Jeff Martini, kidnapped and whereabouts unknown. We really haven’t ever read Kitty on her own – since she and Martini have been a two-for-one kind of deal from book one ‘Touched by an Alien’. It’s really nice to remember that while Jeff has been her hunky alien protector for five books now, when Kitty’s in dire straits she can also hold her own; simultaneously pulling off a missing-persons search and working to prevent intergalactic/earthly warfare.

“It’s a tremendous security breach, not to mention culturally frowned upon, so I can understand why the four of you don’t want it shared with the world. But since the secret you’re trying to hide isn’t related to interstellar security and the fate of the world, the four of you can relax.”
“Interstellar?” Jakob said. “Did I hear you correctly? You were serious about an alien invasion?”
“Yes,” Franklin said. “Based on everything that’s happened, much of which has involved all of you, I’m prepared to break any number of protocols and bring you up to speed. Because I think we need to focus on saving our would more than my career.”

I would say that each of Koch’s books has been slowly expanding Kitty’s (and the readers) understanding of the galaxy from which the Centaurion Division herald. We know that they were forced to flee across space and are still wary of being found here on earth. With these remembered tid-bits from past books in mind, ‘Alien vs. Alien’ is really interesting for what Koch reveals about what is out there – in the galaxy unknown.

But don’t go thinking that this sixth book is all doom and gloom and kidnappings. As much as Koch is expanding the ‘Kitty Katt’ universe, she’s also very much grounded in exploring the relationships between her characters. Expect some highly amusing scenes concerning Christopher and Amy and what it’s like to have a parents-in-law who are, literally, from outer space. Chuckie may or may not also have a very interesting development in the romance department. . . . But I refuse to give anything away!

‘Alien vs. Alien’ is another resounding triumph for Gini Koch and her crazily wonderful ‘Katherine “Kitty” Katt’ space opera series. It has everything you want from summer blockbuster reading; an impending alien invasion, lovers torn apart, the fate of the world in a mother’s hands and a Washington sex scandal. Terrific!

5/5

'Alien vs Alien' is released on December 4

'10 Tips for a Healthy Interspecies Relationship' by Jeff and Kitty Katt-Martini

 

★

I’m so pleased that my two favorite aliens, Kitty Katt-Martini and her husband Jeff Martini, were able to take time out from their world-saving to come over to Alpha Rader and speak to me. I’m especially grateful to them (and their creator, Gini Koch) because I know their sixth book ‘Alien vs. Alien’ is released on December 4th and they’re no doubt gearing up for a very busy festive season! 

So without further ado – I give you ….

★

10 Tips for a Healthy Interspecies Relationship
By Jeff and Kitty Katt-Martini

Hi, I’m Katherine “Kitty” Katt-Martini, and I narrate the true-life adventures of what it’s like to live and work with the most gorgeous, talented, and out of this world folks around. Heavy emphasis on “out of this world”. Because they’re originally from another world -- Alpha Four of the Alpha Centauri system.

Along the way I, and many others, have fallen in love with a special someone who’s got a lot of special under the hood, so to speak. And, for some reason, everyone’s looking to me for advice about how to ensure that their beloved remains their beloved forever and ever. (No, I’m not sure why, either, but I roll with it.)

So, to help everyone out, let’s get the advice flowing! To be fair, I’ve asked my main squeeze, Jeff Martini, to help me out.

Jeff: Main squeeze? I’m your husband.

Kitty: Right you are! So, what’s your first tip?

Jeff: Never refer to your spouse as your ‘main squeeze’. Because it indicates there are subsidiary and secondary squeezes.

Kitty: Only to the overly jealous, like you.

Jeff: Thanks for proving my point.

Kitty: Okay, we’ll go with, “Be sensitive to your special someone’s needs, particularly if your special someone is a really strong empath with serious jealousy issues.”

Jeff: I’ll take it. I’d add that sometimes a person needs their own space, and you should be understanding about it.

Kitty: When have I, or you, for that matter, needed our own space?

Jeff: You did way back when.

Kitty: Okay, we’re contracted with Alpha Reader here for ten tips, so I’ll take it. That’s Tip Two, folks, space! Accept that your mate will be considered the hottest thing on two legs by everyone, everywhere, and try not to worry about fading into the woodwork when standing next to them.

Jeff: Right, because we A-Cs don’t care about looks.

Kitty: Well the gals, or Dazzlers, as I call them, sure don’t. Brains and brain capacity, that’s their thing. To a scary degree.

Jeff: A-C men prefer a brainy girl to a pretty one. I just happened to score the sexiest and smartest girl in the galaxy.

Kitty: Tip Four would be to lay on the compliments, because that kind of stuff never gets old.

Jeff: Hey, it’s true. I like how you slid Tip Three in while no one was looking, baby.

Kitty: Thanks, I thought it was pretty slick, myself. So, next up would be to dump any prejudices you might want to cart along, because A-Cs have no sexual orientation or skin color hang-ups. Or age hang-ups. And most of the religious issues are being handled -- convert, don’t convert, everyone’s okay with it now.

Jeff: Most everyone. Not all. But I do agree that in many things, we’re far more liberal and relaxed than humans. But not everything.

Kitty: True enough, which brings me to our next tip -- get used to seeing your male spouse in a black Armani suit, white shirt, and black tie for the rest of your life. And if your spouse is female, she’ll be in the white Oxford button-down and a black slim skirt forever. A-Cs love their formality and their Armani, not necessarily in that order.

Jeff: I like the suit. I’m comfortable in the suit.

Kitty: I know. Believe me, I know. So, Tip Seven is to remember that even if your alien mate was born on Earth, like my man was, they were probably schooled within the A-C community, so there are still areas where they act very alien, and also don’t get human reactions or terminology.

Jeff: Same goes for humans not understanding us.

Kitty: I suppose. Tip Eight is that almost no A-C can lie believably to any human. There are a few who can, but they have their own special clubhouse. The rest of them? Cannot lie to save their or anyone else’s lives. They get around this problem by not telling you the whole story. But pay attention and you’ll soon easily spot your mate’s tells. After that, go to town.

Jeff: I don’t have tells.

Kitty: OMG, Jeff, you have more tells than anyone else on Earth.

Jeff: Thanks for that. Okay, two more tips, let’s make them count. I’ve got the tips your dad gave me when we were getting married. The main one being a happy wife is a happy life.

Kitty: My dad’s the greatest, isn’t he? Okay, last tip, Tip Ten -- be willing to risk your life for your alien mate, because they’ll be willing to risk theirs for you. And remember that, due to their double-hearts and increased stamina, they are sexual gods and goddesses, making all that life and limb risking beyond totally worth it.

Jeff: I went for the sweet, caring last tip, and you went for life risking and sex. What does that say about us?

Kitty: Whoops, time’s up! That’s all the tips for today, folks! We now return you to our regularly scheduled Alpha Reader!

Get ready to read Jeff and Kitty Martini in their new book 'Alien vs Alien' out on December 4!

Interview with Andrew McGahan, author of the 'Ship Kings' series

Andrew McGahan’s first book in his ‘Ship Kings’ young adult series was a notable CBCA book and made the Inkys longlist. A rollicking and exhilarating sea adventure, the book feels like an ode to the greats like Robert Louis Stevenson and Herman Melville; it’s a remarkable new series, and both children and young adults will find themselves pulled into the swelling story.

Second book in the ‘Ship Kings’ series is released on November 1st, and is ‘The Voyage of the Unquiet Ice’

I was lucky enough to pose a few questions to Mr. McGahan in the lead-up to his second book’s release. . .

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Q: Are you a ‘plotter’ or a ‘pantser’ - that is, do you meticulously plot your novel before writing, or do you ‘fly by the seat of your pants’ and let the story evolve naturally?

For most of my earlier novels I was content to let things develop as I wrote, although I usually had a fair idea of where I was going, but for a four volume fantasy series it did feel necessary to plot things out in somewhat more detail, book by book. That said, nothing turns out exactly as I planned, and I’m quite happy to veer off in new directions if they occur to me mid-manuscript.
 

Q: Where do story ideas generally start for you? Do you first think of the character, theme, ending? Or is it just a free-fall?

I generally have a beginning in mind, and an ending, when I start – but often only a vague idea of how to get from one to the other. Or to put it another way, I know what emotional and dramatic state I want the characters to end up in – usually that means exhausted or traumatised in some manner! - but the question is one of how to reduce them to that state in a way that feels meaningful and significant.
 

Q: Your ‘Ship Kings’ protagonist is a bit of a contradiction. The first page of ‘The Coming of the Whirlpool’ describes how Dow will one day be known as Last of the Ship Kings, but in a twist of fate the first half of his life was “a landlocked one.” I’m just curious if you wrote this series as a great lover of the sea, or as a “landlocked” author fascinated by it?

Entirely the latter. I’m no sailor – indeed, like Dow I grew up nowhere near the sea, and even as an adult I’ve never taken any great interest in boats or in getting out on the ocean. My interest is purely in seafaring tales, which I’ve always loved, from Moby Dick on; not seafaring reality.
 

Q: There’s such fabulous detail in the ‘Ship Kings’ series – everything from sea life to sea creatures is meticulously explored and beautifully bought to life. I’m curious what sort of research you did in writing these books?

I didn’t go overboard with research (if you’ll excuse the pun) as this is a fantasy series and so it’s as much about creating a new world as it is about accurately recreating the real one. So I didn’t, for instance, go and serve on a tall ship or anything. But I did read up a lot on both small boats and large ships and on how to handle them, and studied the raw basics of navigations etc, so as not to have my boats and ships doing things which are utterly ridiculous – hopefully. But I’m sure I wouldn’t fool a real sailor for five seconds, and nor am I trying to.
 

 

Q: ‘Ship Kings’ is your first foray into children’s literature after your great success as a writer of adult books (even winning the 2005 Miles Franklin Award). What prompted you to enter into children’s fiction? Did you consciously set out to make ‘Ship Kings’ for a younger audience?

I wasn’t overtly thinking Young Adult, it was more that I was thinking of a certain style of fantasy – a classic and simple style, if you will, which is less about the complexity of the politics and intrigues of the created world, and more about the pure wonder and adventure of it. I guess that style of fantasy just naturally lends itself to the YA category, but I’d like to think adults can still enjoy it too.
 

Q: Is it harder to write for adults or children/young adults? And since writing for this readership, have you started reading other young adult and children’s books? 

I haven’t read much YA stuff, to be honest, even now. But then I’m always way behind the times in my fiction reading, whatever style I might happen be writing in myself, so that’s nothing new.
As for comparing YA with adult – I don’t think that one is notably any easier to write than the other. There’s more subtext perhaps in an adult novel, so the thought processes behind imagining the different levels of narrative might be more complex, but the craft of writing the actual story is just as demanding for a YA fantasy adventure as it is for anything else. You still have to strive and sweat in the effort to get it right.
 

 

Q: ‘Ship Kings’ is intended as a four-part series, with second book ‘The Voyage of the Unquiet Ice’ released on November 1st. Can you give us any hints about what’s in store for books three and four; ‘The War of the Four Isles’ and ‘The Ocean of the Dead’? 

Ha – no hints, beyond saying that the scale and drama of Dow’s adventures will only increase as he voyages through battle and war and very strange seas to the utmost ends of the Four Isles world. 
 

Q: Favourite author(s) of all time?

There’s too many to name. But as we’re talking YA fantasy, I’ll plug Patricia Wrightson, whose Australian YA fantasies like The Nargun and the Stars and The Ice Is Coming quite changed my life, as well as changing how I thought about the land I lived in.
 

 

Q: Favourite book(s)?

Again, there’s so many. But in the seafaring vein, Moby Dick, The Cruel Sea and The Kraken Wakes.
 

Q: What advice do you have for budding young writers?

For a first draft, don’t worry too much about the opening paragraph or chapter, just breeze on through quickly and get to the story’s end, then you’ll know what the start should really be like.