ROBUST discussion

Hello everyone.
I joined a few days ago and I'm still finding my way around, but I'm glad to be here. As Andre has already said in another thread, I'm Australian. I'm also a mother of three, farmer's wife, library assistant, writer, illustrator and celtic harp player of sorts. I write fantasy and love to read fantasy, but also love the classics.

I used Katie W Stewart as my author name to diffentiate myself from Katie Stewart, the cooking writer (I am a terrible cook), but most people just call me Kate.

My goodreads: page http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/53...

My blog: http://kates-scribbles.blogspot.com/

I'm looking forward to reading and joining in the threads.

Hi Katie,

I'm also new to Goodreads and learning my way around. I am glad to have found Robust.

Will Granger
http://anabarauthor.blogspot.com/

Katie, thanks for introducing yourself on my thread. I bought your Treespeaker on June 24th, so I'm guessing I found it on ROBUST while I was lurking.

Not making any promises on when I will read it, it's so easy to buy on Kindle my TBR pile is getting overwhelming. It's on my chore list to organize beyond the broad categories I now have, into 'Read Now!', 'Maybe Later', 'Friends you Really Want to Read'(that would be you), 'Fast Read for Fun', 'Classic for Your Own Edification You Will be Sorry if You Don't Read', 'Classic you will Love, so Read Soon', and whatever other category I can invent, LOL. You can see my dilemma. Too many books, so little time...

'Classic for Your Own Edification You Will be Sorry if You Don't Read'

The Governess Book of Deportment for Well-Bred Young Ladies?

Hi Sharon. Thanks for buying Treespeaker. I suspect it's on a lot of 'to read' lists that are getting longer and longer. That's one disadvantage/advantage of the Kindle - it's so easy to just keep buying because the book shelves never start to bend. Still, Treespeaker will get read eventually! Interesting categories you have there. I like the one I'm in!

Hey, Kate, I had ten minutes yesterday on finishing editing a book, and used it to dip into Treespeaker. I read something similar (innocents living in close communion with their environment) a while ago, last year probably. They say comparisons are invidious, but it's bullshit. Comparisons, and pretty brutal at that, are the very stuff of literary criticism.

As I read a few pages from Treespeaker, I couldn't help but reflect that some people are just born story tellers, and some aspirants, no matter how much they want to be novelists, will never be anything but awkward failures.

I like the way your text flows so that it dissolves, so that the reader follows the story without thought, drawn into it seamlessly. It was a hardship tearing myself away from your book. You're a good story teller.

I thought I'd answered this earlier, but I must have been too overcome and forgot to press 'Post'.

Andre, thank you. You've made my day! I hope you'll find time to finish reading it sometime in the not too distant future. I hope, too, that it lives up to your initial impressions to the end.

Just dropping by to say "Hello."

"Hello" *Waves to Kat*

I'm just off to check your invitation. I couldn't do anything with it yesterday.

Yeah, sorry about that.

I wasn't paying attention when I set it up.

Andre Jute wrote: "'Classic for Your Own Edification You Will be Sorry if You Don't Read'

The Governess Book of Deportment for Well-Bred Young Ladies?"

I would have put the Governess book into the 'Fast Read for Fun' but now that you mention it, might be more edifying than Nietzsche or Homer.

Katie, high praise indeed. Savour it...

Sharon wrote: Katie, high praise indeed. Savour it...

I'm still floating on the strength of it! And when I start to flag, I'll come back and re-read it!

I have treespeaker on the tbr short list as well. I even started it last night but fell asleep fairly quickly. Trying to beat my next series into shape in editing and so I don't have a lot of time... plus I really have to write a vampire novel one day, probably after it's fashionable. lol.

Vampires? EW! Dead men with bad breath in rotting clothes...I don't get it.

Kat wrote: "Vampires? EW! Dead men with bad breath in rotting clothes...I don't get it."

Isn't that Zombies, Kat?

Amos, I'm not sure how to take you falling asleep quickly while you were reading my book!

Went out walking in the middle of the night in a genuine soft Irish weather. "Soft" is when you turn your face into the wind and you notice that a birdy peed in the air three miles away, drops that fine and few. Good tweed never gets wet through even after all day outside...

Light from my headlamp fell on my black outfit. All these tiny drops of water lit up. "Mr Bling!" I shouted, probably waking the good householders across the gully, and half the dead in the graveyard I was just passing.

Bling put me in mind of the preoccupation here for vampires, and my prozimity to the graveyard -- I was just at the gate, which creaks in the slightest breeze -- reminded me that Dracula slept in a coffin. I was looking over my shoulder all the way home.

Goddamn vampires.

I was really tired. I did get through two or three chapters. I was hoping to read more, but I always go to sleep reading something. lol.

And I'm fairly sure vampires actually live in an alternate reality where they wiped out humanity some time in the 17th century for being completely uncool and killing people all the time, mostly themselves and especially vampires. Vampires use environmentally friendly alternative energy sources and transport systems and don't engage in war... unless it's fighting evil human invaders from our dimension. They don't sleep in coffins. This is typical human propaganda.

Amos, I do that too, good book or bad...

Andre, it has crossed my mind several times to ask if you ever sleep, having friends from your part of the world and assuming you are 8 hours ahead of my PST. It never occurred to me you were out haunting graveyards.

LOL, Amos. I visit alternate realities all the time and have never crossed paths with a Vampire. Although I must admit I can't see one wanting my blood, there's not that much of it...

Sharon, that tickle on you neck is my teeth, reaching across the ocean and the continent...

Hasn't it occurred to you that the reason I don't write about vampires is that I'm afraid of outing myself?

Amos, you have a book there already. All you have to do is write it.

Oh yes, I already have the book. I really need to invent time travel so I can jump forward and grab a copy and save myself a lot of work. (It's only a paradox if you get caught.)

Wait...what? Andre's a closet vampire? Damn, didn't know tweed was the new bling for vamps.

You need to lose the old stereotypes. Think of the homely vampire next door...

I've got a Zombie in the house. Every time it rains, Hubby turns into a Zombie.

I always thought that Vampires had to sleep in (or on) the earth they were buried in.

Andre is a SPARKLING vampire. (EVIL giggle)

Oooh covered in glitter....

Ha ha, Amos, that's a visual I do not want in my head...

Nor the one from Andre re the tickle on my neck. I'd prefer the one in my dream last night...

But you do know, Amos that you don't have to invent time travel, it's there for the taking... Write about it and I bet you discover it...

Ha ha Kat, you are on fire!!

Oh dear, last week one of the threads had Andre dressed for belly dancing. Now he's a sparkly vampire! Too much.

No dignity in this life!

You're the one who mentioned BLING.

Giggle...

The rain did it to me. The only jewelry I wear is a watch, and that's normally a blackface, matte platinum Citizen with a slide rule bezel, a tool watch rather than bling, given to me by some other pilots after a refueling scare. There's a piccie on the net: http://coolmainpress.com/andrejutewat... and scroll down to the blackface (it's actually very dark blue) watch where I talk about Algol III.

I bet that if you were limited to one piece of jewelry, you'd die of indecision before you reached a conclusion.

Andre Jute wrote: "I bet that if you were limited to one piece of jewelry, you'd die of indecision before you reached a conclusion. ..."

I made a conscious decision to go bling free a while back just so I didn't have to be bothered deciding what went with what. Now I'm waiting for someone to notice that I am not wearing anything blingy and shiny so that they can buy me stuff.

Red hair is bling enough...

True true.

About a third through Treespeaker now and haven't fallen asleep in ages. lol. I have quite an affinity for the people and their way of life in the story as it echoes many aspects of my own Mirrim Dawn novels. The oneness with nature and the 'gods' is similar, the village oracle, etc. Mine is something of a scifi/fantasy fusion, but the line is always a little fuzzy. At this stage I have a feeling that your Dovan is my Dawn. lol. Eager to read more.

Oh no, someone wrote my novel at the same time as me! I look forward to checking out the similarities, Amos.

Haha. Different, of course, but similar themes I think. You have more cultural depth I think.

Mirrim Dawn is the one. Has a 50% sample on smashwords if you want to see a couple of chapters. Will be free book of the month in October. Shh. lol. Has a bit of scifi content as it goes on tho.

Now back to it. I want to finish the book this weekend. lol. Editing can wait. It's driving me mad anyway.

Okay. Finished. Where's the next one? lol.

Wow, that was quick! And wrote a review, too, I see! Thanks, Amos! The sequel is maybe two-thirds finished, but progressing very slowly at the moment, so slowly that I'm having to reread it to remember what I wrote at the beginning!

"I bet that if you were limited to one piece of jewelry, you'd die of indecision before you reached a conclusion."

No, my opals would win. Even over my pretty new Sekico watch, which I adore. As much as I love my Amethyst - I've got an Art Deco era ring from an Aunt - my opals will always win.

"Red hair is bling enough."

LOL I used to wear it long in the 80's. I didn't own any bling then - so my hair and black leather jacket was attention grabbing enough. Those were fun days.

LOL Katie, I'd never admitted that I sometimes cannot remember something I've written but since connecting with more authors I realize that is quite common. Whew!

Still rather disconcerting when someone asks you what you meant by a certain scene and you have to go back and check it.

I don't like much bling - had a break-in a few years ago and they stole some mighty big diamonds my dh liked for me - but I was just as happy to get the insurance money. But I do have a few things that would make me dither if I had to give up all but one...

Heck. I have entire unpublished novels that I would have to read to tell you how they end. One is some sort of princess and the pauper story on a forest planet. That's all I remember. lol. My son read it recently and told me the girl didn't end up with the guy from the early chapters. I said wtf? Who did she end up with? I didn't even know the other guy. Who the hell was he?

Anyway, Katie, was quite a page turner toward the end. Plot was fairly straight but not give away predictable and still leaving a few surprises. Well, I mean we could see Dovan's future, but then we always wanted that. You can get too complicated with plots sometimes anyway and I'm currently working on a plot within a plot within a plot within... then I took a couple of levels right out. It was too damn complicated. Even I couldn't keep up. lol.

I did get a little bit lost in the names early on. I think there could be a book written on fantasy/scifi naming conventions. I have had a complaint about my latest book from beta readers on the same issue where they are lost as to who is who... For some reason people are confusing Adelaide and Sierra and Saguaro, and Nile and Tini and Ahwi. hmm. One lot of people are named after animals, rivers, places and things, and the others are derived Cherokee language names (of animals and things). Shouldn't be an issue. argh. But then I found that even I had Adelaide and Sierra confused at times during a reading... sigh.

Glad to hear there is a sequel. You have fans. Hopefully that is some inspiration. It is for me. My kids (now adult) keep nagging me for the next novels. lol.

Katie wrote: "Wow, that was quick! And wrote a review, too, I see! Thanks, Amos! The sequel is maybe two-thirds finished, but progressing very slowly at the moment, so slowly that I'm having to reread it to reme..."

URL for this review? Maybe quote it here on ROBUST in the REVIEWS folder so we can share?

Did I mention that was a very nice cover. Did you do that yourself?

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

You beat me to it, Amos! There's another one, too! Two five star reviews in one day.

*Floats away to the review thread...*

By the way, yes I did the covers for both my books. Thanks.

I had a feeling you did them, being artistic and all. lol. Very nicely done. I struggle along myself. Being broke is a big motivator when it comes to learning how to use The Gimp, etc. lol.

Amos wrote: "http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/..."

That's an excellent review, Katie. And the other one too. Congratulations.

Nice work, Amos. It's not what I read, but I still want a sense of the book and you've given it to me. Thank you.