Author: cherylmahoney

I'm a book review blogger and writer. I have published four novels, The Wanderers; The Storyteller and Her Sisters; and The People the Fairies Forget; and The Lioness and the Spellspinners. All can be found on Amazon as an ebook and paperback. In my day job, I'm a Marketing Specialist. Find me on Twitter (@MarvelousTales) and GoodReads (MarvelousTales).

On the Run from the Royal British Navy

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fiction FridayLeave a comment

I already shared the beginning of my Golden Age of Piracy story, and this week I want to give you another scene.  The last excerpt introduced you to my pirate captain, Red Ballantyne, but you get to know him better here, especially since he takes over the narration.  Red and Tam go on to alternate narrating the rest of the story.

This is early, so there isn’t a lot of background needed–you can read the preceding scene here.  In sum, Tam has already asked Red for a job on his ship and been turned down, but when officers of the Royal British Navy showed up at the tavern, Red needed Tam’s help to lead him through the crowd to the back door.  That’s about it so far–except that “Tam” is short for “Tamara,” something Red doesn’t know yet.

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            I don’t know why Navy men can’t stay in their own kind of tavern—do you suppose Navy officers even go into taverns for the pleasure in it, or are they too restrained for that?—and just leave me alone.  Me, I’m Red Ballantyne, captain of the Ocean Rose, handsome, debonair and charming, effective with any make of weapon and loved by many women in many ports.  That’s what the stories say.  If they’re not saying that, I’d like to know the reason why not.  The stories should also be telling you that my Rosie is the finest ship that ever sailed any seven of the Seven Seas.  Sure, I’m only intimately familiar with ships in the Caribbean, but I’d still wager money that Rosie’s the best anywhere, barring none.  I’d give you my word on it except that I’m a liar and a rogue, so my word isn’t worth much. 

            Rosie really is something special, though.  I was very much wanting to get back to her, as I pushed through a crowded tavern with the Navy in pursuit.  It was lucky that me and the kid I was following belonged in this sort of place.  We were suitably unkempt; my coat’s the same color blue as the Navy’s, but the effect is different when you wear it open and cut off the cuffs and lapels.  We belonged, the Navy didn’t, and in some crowds that makes a difference.  This crowd let us through without hardly noticing they were doing it.  They tripped the Navy when they thought they could get away with it.

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Bear and Psyche, Sort Of

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews, Young Adult4 Comments

As you might know, one of my reading challenges for the year is to read novels that are fairy tales retold–because I really need to read more than I already do!  🙂  But, that goal is what led me to Ice by Sarah Beth Durst.

Cassie lives in the Arctic, at a research station with her scientist father.  Her mother, she believes, died when she was young.  Her grandmother, however, tells a fairy tale about Cassie’s mother–she was the daughter of the North Wind, and was promised to marry the Polar Bear King.  But she fell in love with a human, Cassie’s father, and bartered with the King–he could marry her daughter instead.  And when the North Wind found out that his daughter married a human, in his fury he blew her away to the castle of the trolls.

Such is the swiftly-established backstory, which probably could have been a novel (or at least Part One of a novel) in its own right.  But Ice really starts when Cassie is eighteen, and past believing in fairy tales–until the Polar Bear King actually shows up and wants to marry her.

As you might guess, the Polar Bear King is in fact a magical polar bear.  He asks her to call him Bear, and can conveniently change shape to a human on occasion–although there are complications.  Durst created a very interesting magical framework for her tale, which I enjoyed.  The unfolding romance was sweet as well, and when some of those complications separate Cassie and Bear, Cassie’s quest to find him is an exciting one.  It’s also implausible in certain ways I don’t want to get into to avoid spoilers, but if you suspend disbelief, it’s a good read.

Ice has a very strong fairy tale feel, complete with the fairy tale backstory and a castle of the trolls located “east of the sun and west of the moon.”  But it wasn’t actually immediately apparent which fairy tale this was.  A video interview with the author describes it as “Beauty and the Beast,” and from the initial premise I went into it expecting that.  Maybe I shouldn’t argue with the author, but I have to say, the farther I read the more I think it’s actually “Cupid and Psyche.”  Granted, Cupid is not usually a polar bear, but that complication involving Bear’s human shape was that Cassie couldn’t see what he looked like–which is straight out of “Cupid and Psyche.”  It also wouldn’t shock me to find out there’s a minor tale somewhere in Grimm’s that this follows even more closely.  It just has that archetypal fairy tale feel to it, and I imagine some of the elements have come up in a lot of different places.

I did have a few reservations about the book.  One of the biggest involves Cassie’s mother.  It’s not giving too much away to reveal that she does come back from the castle of the trolls–it happens fairly early on in the book.  Not knowing her mother was a huge motivation for Cassie at the beginning of the book, but then when her mother actually comes back, I didn’t feel like that was adequately developed.  It’s fair enough to say that meeting your mother for the first time at eighteen does not necessarily lead to immediate closeness, but I didn’t feel like Durst properly explored any relationship between the two of them, even if it was going to be an awkward or strained relationship.

Second, I had some trouble with the points where magic and reality met.  I believed in the research station.  I believed (in a fantasy book way, I mean) in Bear’s castle and in his magic.  But sometimes the two intersected, and I had a lot more trouble believing in a scene where a scientist doing research in the Arctic says, “yes, my wife was held captive by the trolls for many years.”  I don’t think it was just magic and the modern day intersecting–I’ve read urban fantasy that I really enjoyed.  I think it was that characters who showed no sign of believing in magic suddenly started talking about it as an accepted fact, and that was a little hard to buy.

However–it was still a good book.  And when I was getting down to the last few chapters, I even stayed up late to finish reading and see how it would turn out.

Author’s site: http://sarahbethdurst.com/contact.htm (check out the best ever FAQ section!)

The Things Characters Tell You

On By cherylmahoneyIn Ruminations7 Comments

I’ve noticed recently that I’m a fairly trusting reader.  By that, I mean that if a character (especially a narrator) tells me something, I believe them.  I’m good at catching twists in a plot, so in a way I can spot when things aren’t what they seem.  But if one character, for example, describes another character to me, I’ll accept that–and sometimes I think it causes problems.

I’ve just been reading a book with two first-person narrators, going back and forth.  At first, they don’t like each other when they meet.  I noticed that when one narrator described the other one as annoying and stuffy, I started seeing him that way–even though I’d liked him perfectly well (and hadn’t had that impression) before she described him.  The trouble arises because, as I read on, I do think, intellectually, that she was wrong, and she even changes her opinion–but I’ve incorporated her initial impression into my impression of the character, and I have trouble getting rid of it.

Another, perhaps more illuminating example, from a different book: a ten-year-old girl, narrating, meets an adult man and describes him as old.  Years pass, they’re friends, she realizes as she gets older that he was probably only twenty or so when she met him.  But I’ve been picturing him as old, and I have a terrible time trying to get rid of that impression now that I’m learning new information.  Which made the whole thing fall a little flat when they eventually got together romantically–the age difference is big enough, and I’m saddled with an impression that it’s much larger.

I heard in a writing class once that having one character say something about another is one of the best ways to reveal things about that second character (and the one doing the describing, for that matter).  But it gets more complicated with a character who’s mistaken, or even lying.  How does a writer, or a reader, handle that?

It makes me think, as a writer, that if you want to pull a twist on your reader, it’s better to do it by leaving out information than by telling the wrong information.   I read another book recently where a supporting character named Jamie seems to be male–then turns out to be female.  I don’t mean she was in disguise.  All the characters who knew her knew perfectly well she was a girl, but the author kept the reader from realizing it through very clever writing–and careful avoidance of personal pronouns.  And that worked.  Even though I was imagining Jamie as male, when she turned out to be a girl no one had actually told me otherwise, and I could appreciate the twist.  If another character had told me something about Jamie that needed to be re-thought, I think it would have been harder.

Anyone else want to weigh in?  Do you believe what characters tell you?  And can you change your impressions when they tell you something new?

Because It’s There

On By cherylmahoneyIn Historical Fiction, Juvenile, Reviews2 Comments

I want to begin this review by saying that I have never been mountain-climbing.  Nor do I ever plan to go.  The truth is, I don’t even like steep hills (which, believe me, can be a problem if you live in San Francisco).  I can walk very happily for miles on flat ground, but give me a hill and it’s all over.  But this is why I love books.  I love that they let me live lives I would never actually live, whether that involves casting magical spells, visiting a distant planet, or climbing a mountain.

That last brings me to Banner in the Sky by James Ramsey Ullman.  You’ll notice I have a picture of Third Man on the Mountain.  Walt Disney changed the title for his movie version, and then they reprinted the book with the new title.  I like Banner in the Sky better–for one thing, I’m not sure what Disney’s title is even supposed to mean!

With either title, the book is about Rudi Matt, and about the Citadel.  Rudi is a teenager living in a small village in the Alps in the 1800s, and he dreams of climbing the Citadel.  It’s the one unconquered peak, the one no man has ever reached the top of.  No one has tried for years, since the failed expedition that killed Rudi’s father.  Rudi’s mother has forbidden him to become a mountain climber (and I do understand her viewpoint!) but when an Englishman comes determined to lead an expedition up the unclimbable mountain, Rudi is determined to go.

The book is as much about Rudi’s growth as it is about the mountain.  He learns that there’s more to climbing a mountain than just scrambling over rocks, learns about things like trusting others and never leaving a comrade.  He learns to follow his father’s footsteps in more ways than one.  My best guess on Disney’s title is that Rudi becomes a man on the mountain, rather than a boy–but I can’t quite figure out how Disney calculates him as the third one.

This makes it all sound like it’s deep and reflective, and occasionally it is–but there’s also plenty of scrambling over rocks, and getting caught on ledges, and even an avalanche or two.  It’s an exciting story as well as a meaningful one.

It reminds me a little bit of stories about Scott’s expedition to the South Pole.  Not because of the snow similarity, but because they’re both about men trying to achieve a feat that has been considered unachievable.  They’re about pursuing the impossible dream.  And while I personally don’t have any desire to climb a mountain or ski to the South Pole, when the story is told right, I can get very enthused about someone else’s dream.

Why does someone climb a mountain?  “Because it’s there” is always a good answer.  Because it’s there to be conquered.  For Rudi, it’s because he wants to take his climbing staff and his father’s red sweater, and plant them as a flag at the top of the Citadel–a banner in the sky.

Even though I need a good reason to climb a steep hill and can’t imagine climbing a mountain, Banner in the Sky makes me believe in Rudi’s dream, makes me see it as vital and important for him, and makes me want to see him succeed.

Watching Opera with the Phantom

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fiction Friday3 Comments

Looking back over my Fiction Fridays, I find there’s at least one representative of almost all my major writing projects.  My Golden Age of Piracy story and my Fairy Tale Retelling, as well as the significant interests of my fanfiction years, Star Trek and Pirates of the Caribbean.  But–I am missing my one other fanfiction interest.  And the Phantom of the Opera does not like to be ignored (somewhat paradoxically, he also doesn’t like being noticed–a complex character).

My Phantom Programs

To round things out, and keep the Phantom happy 🙂 I thought I’d share a scene from my Phantom novel.  There’s not a lot of context needed for this particular scene.  Backstory (spoilers for the original, you have been warned)–the Phantom is a masked musical genius who lives beneath the Paris Opera House.  One of his demands for the opera company is that Box Five be reserved for his exclusive use.  He falls in love with Christine, a singer at the Opera, there’s a romantic triangle and a lot of upheaval, and she eventually leaves and he’s left at the Opera House with a broken heart.

My story picks up from there.  It’s mostly but not exclusively based on the Webber musical (the original, NOT in any way, in any form, in the slightest bit, on the sequel–and if you don’t know what I’m talking about, good, you’ve been spared).  It primarily focuses on the Phantom, whose name is Erik (not something Webber mentioned), and on Meg Giry, a supporting character in the original.  She’s not actually in this scene, although she’s loosely referenced in the remarks about blondes.

This scene is a little while into the story, a few months after the original ends, and the management of the Opera has just decided to sell Box Five for the first time.

I think I’m okay on copyright here…Leroux’s Phantom has got to be public domain by now, and nothing here is directly from any other version.

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            The young man who bought the seats in Box Five was named Pierre.  His lady friend, whom he had met exactly two days previously, was named Jacqueline, and so far he had done very well impressing her.  They greatly enjoyed Act One.  Then, in the middle of Act Two, the voice started.

            “You’re in my box, you know.”  It was really a very nice sounding voice.  Definitely male, almost melodious in nature, and conversational in tone.

            That didn’t stop Pierre from taking issue with the words.  He rose from his seat and turned to address the apparent direction of the speaker.  “It so happens that I paid for these seats—”  He broke off abruptly, looking wildly around the box.  There was no one there.

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