Barbara Neville's Blog - Posts Tagged "romance"

***SPOILERS***
This review contains spoilers!
[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "On the Rocks" by Barbara Neville.]

On the Rocks is a space Western set in an intriguing future. The greatest strength of this book is its narrator, Roxanne Rockefeller, a profane, feisty cowgirl. Neville has created a genuinely fresh and well-developed character in Roxanne, a young woman who rides out in her best riding finery, complete with guns, a knife… and grenades.

Early in the book, when it seems that Roxanne is a bit too prone to swearing (take a guess at which cuss word is repeated as the first seven words of the book!), Roxanne gives a spirited defense of her filthy mouth, which both humorously justifies her style of talking, while adding depth to her character. I would have thoroughly enjoyed it if the novel were all about Roxanne rambling about the state of the world and her opinions on everything, but as it stands, On the Rocks launches into a page-turning adventure, although some passages are confusing and I had to reread some chapters where certain events seemed to be worded in too vague a manner.

Neville’s wild frontier is set in what is probably the future, where the world outside of the free wilderness is ruled by a seemingly benevolent but truly manipulative government, where history is heavily edited to fit the regime’s agendas, and selling meat is profitable business on planets where people are compelled to be vegetarians. There are numerous elements of this fictional universe that remind me of one of my all-time favorite television series, Firefly, and this book can be strongly recommended to fans of the Firefly/Serenity universe.

Unfortunately, this futuristic setting is a bit more sparsely described than I would have liked– it would have helped if Neville fleshed out her fictional world’s mythology a bit more to show a bit more about its development. If On the Rocks is meant to be the start of a series, then I retract that criticism, since future books might by necessity expand upon Neville’s involving fictional world.

Over the course of this book, Roxanne explores, and meets a variety of people with diverse backgrounds, but these characters are united by their shared genuine love for the cowboy lifestyle. The great joy of this book is watching these characters go about their travels, interact, converse, and reflect upon what they want from life.

I give this book three out of four stars.

Reinterpreting relationships. The new big thing on TV is throuples and three ways. A throuple is three people in a (traditionally couples-two people- in a relationship). Aka polyamory. It's a redefinition, not new, of marriage. Robert Heinlein, in "Stranger in a Strange Land", was my first introduction to the beast. I don't mean it in a bad way, big fan in fact.
Recently, someone coined the term 'throuple', I heard it on "You Me Her" (Audience network) and had to run with it. I saw a teaser for another show, whose name slips my mind, for a threesome. Or talk of one. Talk's cheap. So, in order to define the relationship for the situation that Annie, in my books, has with her men, I had to expand throuple beyond three. Fourple and quadouple (yikes) aren't enough. Quouple? Quiple? In plain English, there's five of them. How about quintouple? Or drop the 'O', for quintuple. All five get along fine, so far. It's fiction...or maybe not. And Annie is loving it! Comments?

I write in first person, because that's what I prefer to read. But some of my other characters cry out to be heard. Sure they can speak in dialogue. But some, like Ma'cho, seldom speak. We only see him through the protagonist's (Cha'a) eyes. And, while Ma'cho seldom speaks, he thinks in broad strokes. In Hell to Pay he added a new point of view (POV) to the book. I especially liked where he described Cha'a. He has a much deeper passion, a passion that Cha'a herself doesn't realize exists. And, he sees her very differently than she sees herself.
My favorite POV, though, is the antagonists. I use tiny slices. Simple peeks into their progress throughout a book, to add suspense. And to make them more three dimensional, usually through thought, because, in the last couple of books the bad guys (if that's what they are, my good guys aren't white knights either) work alone. And most of the time are out in the wilderness tracking my horseback Apache main characters. There's literally no one to talk to but themselves.
I don't know where I first ran into this technique, but I have seen it in James Patterson's work or co-writings. And done very well.
And, of course, this gives one the ability to include scenes where the main character isn't present. This can add dimension to the plot. And provide important back story or side story without having to create a way for the protagonist to be in two places at once. In my latest book, working title "Badass Sons a Bitches", the antagonist has a lot of chapters, which take some intent screwing (cutting and pasting) around with to keep things timely. So that we aren't jumping back and forth in time (pun intended). Just to make for an easier flow in our minds.
I like the feel of that, since the book is present tense, it seems to me to be a good way to build the tension as I read. Plus, the antagonist's motives can be revealed along the way. After all, antagonists need love, too. A driven, seething protagonist can make a good story great.
Also, with every character, I have backstory ongoing; because everyone has history which affects their present actions. It's where three-dimensional characters are born.
Anyhow, give it a try. Have Ben take a walk. And Sally talk behind his back to Shirley while he's gone. Or whatever. Go fucking crazy!

Who is your favorite character? I especially like Vic in Craig Johnson's Longmire series. I like Walt too. And Henry.
And Craig himself is, not surprisingly, very entertaining. I just saw him speak, along with A. Martinez another well spoken man (he plays Jacob Nighthorse in the Longmire series on Netflix) at the Tucson Festival of Books.
I aspire to write as well as Craig, give me another few decades...
When asked how many more books would there be in the Longmire series; Craig said something that rang true for me. He might just go at his desk, like Robert Parker. Type "The end" then keel over.
He loves the world he's written and it shows in the books. I have the same problem, I wrote two spinoff books which stand alone and are western historical fiction, but they tied into the first series and sure enough, the next book in the first series ties the spinoff duo right back into the action. Hey, I tried my damndest (or darndest if you don't like cussing) to escape. But it's love. I love my characters. Especially the bad guys. Now, in my books it can, at times, be hard to tell who is who (whom?). My good guys skate along the ragged edge because they disagree with the powers that be. They are outlaws and lawmen, both.
Someone suggested I should share bit about myself:
Besides writing I raise goats, chickens, guineas, and peacocks, along with Great Pyrenees livestock guardian dogs. They keep the predators away from my fowl and livestock. I have a couple of horses, too. And one female pup left. She is for sale.
I live next to the border wall. Everyone knows which border has the wall, don't we? Yikes.
Okay, enough about me. Who in my books is your favorite? Honestly, my favorite is whichever of the guys I am writing about at the moment. It's hard to look beyond that. In one book, I was only gonna have Spud and Wolf. Them other guys? They snuck in when I wasn't lookin'. I swear. I'm gonna try again in the next book. But, damned if I can decide which one or two to let ride. I started with the big guy, then thought maybe the twins... or Buzz and Wolf, or Buzz and Spud? And that damn Hammer is always wanting to say something smartass to Annie. Ay yi yi, fellas. Give a gal a break.
Also, look at the great photo I took for my latest book cover, Against the Wind is available to preorder now. Happy trails.