SFF Saturday 8-25-2012

This week's submission for Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday is an excerpt from "Dremiks".  I invented a card game for my characters to play and spent a large amount of time figuring out the rules of the game.  This snippet has been modified from the published version of "Dremiks" in order to meet the requirements for SFF Saturdays (10 sentences or less).

Don't forget to check out the other authors' work!

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The four officers were playing spay-ya bushki, a popular card game in university dorms and military barracks all over Earth. The name was a bastardization of the Russian phrase “grandmother’s tears”. The rule set had evolved over the years, and, as was common with every game, each group of players added their own quirks. Played with one hundred four cards from two distinct decks, spay-ya was a bizarre combination of bridge and poker. Each player was initially dealt three cards. They had to bet before looking at those “hole” cards. The bets hovered a foot above the table to each player’s right side, projected by small keycards that recorded wagers and money won or lost.

Swede flipped two cards face up from the top of the deck; these cards became the high and low trumps. Because a spay-ya deck had eight suites, there were several possible designated trump suites and numbers. A skilled player combined card counting, strategic thinking, and a great deal of luck in his game play.

The Dreaded 2 Star Review

Readers often comment on bulletin boards and in reviews posted on popular sites like Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Goodreads that they disregard the glowing 5 star reviews of new authors obviously written by family and friends. I’ve read several comments where a reader states that he or she looks only at the 2 and 3 star reviews to get a true feel for the book. I’m not sure I entirely agree with this policy, but if that behavior is widespread, it should help a new author to have a few critical reviews. So, I suppose “Dremiks” has officially “arrived” because I’ve finally received a 2 star review.

The reviewer was not malicious and did not state anything that indicated that he had picked up “Dremiks” thinking it a genre different than science-fiction space-opera. In fact, he seems to have sought out the book specifically because he likes the genre. Therefore, I cannot just roll my eyes and ignore his comments. I may not agree with his analysis, but it is a fact of life that not all readers are going to like my book—or any book. There are people who adore “The Great Gatsby”. I’d rather gnaw off my own arms than read it again. This particular reader didn’t like my story development and felt the ending was rushed. That’s his opinion and he’s entitled to it. Obviously if I receive hundreds of such reviews then I have serious issues and need to reconsider my writing style. One such review will not, I hope, doom my first book to the dustbin of hideous literature.

Finally, a complete stranger bought my book, read it, and took the time to write a detailed review of why he disliked it. That’s a pretty big moment in an author’s life, even if it hurts just a bit.

SFF Saturday 8-18-2012

Several of the other authors participating in SFF Saturday are having book giveaways and contests right now.  Please take the time to read their snippets and then sign up for your chance to win free copies of their expanded works.  The snippets are just teasers for the really good stuff!

This is another snippet from what will, hopefully, be the third book in the Dremiks series. Last week's snippet hinted that the burgeoning relationship between Maggie and Brett had somehow gone awry.  Here's another teaser of things to come:
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“You have personal reasons for this journey, sir.”

Brett stopped walking and looked up to stare coldly at the engineer. “Oh, it’s very personal, Swede, and I do not deceive myself otherwise. This is the best chance I’ve had in two years to bring my brother to justice.”

“And her?”

Brett had the good grace to break off his stare and glance away. He gingerly touched his slightly swollen lip. “She’s a lose end that has been left flapping in the breeze for too long. She’s been running the known universe all this time trying her damndest to get herself killed and give me--and you--grey hairs. It’s time O’Connell stopped running.”

SpecFicPick interview

I've been very fortunate to come across some really nice, professional, and passionate people in the writing, publishing, and marketing fields.  One such person is Michael K. Rose.  He has a website that highlights speculative fiction.  You'll see a link on the side-bar of this blog to "SpecFicPick".  I encourage all of my readers to subscribe to that site so that you won't miss any of the fantastic books and authors featured there.

Speaking of which, I was interviewed for "SpecFicPick".  You can read the interview here: http://specficpick.blogspot.com/2012/08/interview-cassandra-davis.html

SFF Saturday 8-11-2012

Go read the really great authors who post every week at  http://scififansat.blogspot.com/ !

This is from the first chapter to the third book in the "Dremiks" series.  I hope you like it.

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Cassandra Ruger walked into her examining room to find Maggie had stripped down to a tight fitting tank top and was gently prodding an open slash down her right bicep. The doctor gasped, “Maggie this really isn’t the best time--how did you do that to yourself?”

“What do you mean not the best time? And I didn’t do it to myself, obviously. It bloody well hurts and I don’t want it to get infected.” Maggie looked over her shoulder to see her friend, then paled from her bloody arm all the way to the tip of her bright red hair.

Commodore of the Fleet, Brett Hill, stood in the doorway between Dr. Ruger’s office and the examining room. He was staring at her with the same frank, assessing, look he'd used the last time they'd seen each other. His eyes paused on the gaping wound, traveled to her barely clad chest, and then up to her face. “Good afternoon, Commander."

Review: "The Fallen Angel"

With so many wonderful novels out there priced below $5.00 for the e-book version, I have to be very familiar with the quality of an author’s work before shelling out $12.99 (or more) for an ebook. That said, I spend more than $20 that going to see a movie with my husband, so why shouldn’t I pay $10 or so for a book? That’s fodder for another post, though.

Daniel Silva’s “The Fallen Angel” is the latest in his Gabriel Allon series. I’ve read all of his previous books and genuinely enjoyed each one. So, I was familiar with Mr. Silva’s writing style, attention to detail, and engaging characters and therefore willing to pay a bit more for an ebook. “Fallen Angel” did not disappoint.

Ebook formatting: 5 stars
The Kindle version was well formatted with navigation links, a table of contents, and appropriate paragraph spacing. You might think, “Well duh, it’s from a major publisher- of COURSE it’s done correctly”. Oh, if only that held true.

Editing: 5 stars
Professionally edited (of course) and not by someone who is just phoning it in. Of course Mr. Silva is an established, successful, author with a successful journalist for a wife, so he knows his craft and practices it with professionalism.

Plot: 4 stars
The book starts off with a murder mystery and morphs into an international crisis (of course). The murder mystery felt a bit contrived to me, but was intriguing enough to catch and hold my attention and I truly felt for the twin sister of the murdered woman. The crisis in Jerusalem was the stuff of nightmares and uncomfortably realistic. That’s Silva’s genius, though. “The Rembrandt Affair” was very prescient regarding Iranian nuclear enrichment and international efforts to sabotage that process. Since I unabashedly agree with the political views of Silva’s books, I had no trouble with the pedantic passages on Middle Eastern strife and Biblical history.

Character development: 3 stars
This area constitutes my biggest complaint with “The Fallen Angel”. Gabriel Allon’s wife, Chiara is such a flat character that I honestly wonder sometimes if she’s not just a painting Gabriel is trying to restore. We get so much insight into so many of the repeating characters in this series, including His Holiness the (fictional) Pope, Eli Lavon, and Adrian Carter, that the lack of development for Chiara is very noticeable. Mr. Silva has proven time and again that he can write female characters with amazing depth. I wish he would spend some time fleshing out the second Mrs. Allon.

Summary: 4 stars
“The Fallen Angel” delivers a fast paced spy thriller with a murder mystery as bonus content. This is a thinking man’s, or woman’s, book. If you if you like your storylines bland and non-controversial, find something else to read. You cannot read "The Fallen Angel" without worrying about the future of Israel and the escalation of global religious warfare.

Crafting in Guild Wars 2

Switching hats here from sci-fi and fantasy author to gamer-geek-girl.  Here are my thoughts on crafting in Guild Wars 2, the new MMO from ArenaNet to be released on August 28th. (August 25th if you pre-purchase)

I very much enjoy crafting in GW2. I don't know that any game will ever approach the economy that Pirates of the Burning Sea had in place, but Guild Wars 2 at least makes the crafting process interesting and worth your time.

1. Gathering nodes are unique to the character. All players see wood, vegetables/herbs, and ore but the items are unique spawns so that you cannot "steal" another player's node. During the beta weekends, nodes respawned every 24 hours. It remains to be seen if this timer will hold true in the live game, (UPDATE: nodes respawn at varying times depending on world bonuses) but given the size of the world available for exploration, I don't see that as a problem.

2. Every player can "gather". There are three gathering tools which take up slots on your character inventory ( meaning they don't have to stay in your bags and thus don't take up bag space) All players can carry each of the three tools simultaneously. You do not even have to have a crafting skill learned to gather. Players also earn exp for gathering, so I highly recommend spending a few copper on gathering tools, equipping them, and gathering every node you see. Even if you will not use the materials yourself, you can sell them or send to guildies who are crafting AND you'll be making exp in the process.

3. Basic crafting recipes can be a bit costly for a player who is below level 5, but crafting merchants also supply materials which you can buy with "karma" points that are earned out in the world doing public events.

4. You can "discover" new recipes by adding different combinations of materials to the "discovery" pane. For those who like puzzles, like me, this is a fun distraction.

5. Crafting materials you gather can be automatically transported to your bank via the "deposit collectibles" function. Basically, you right click on an item and chose the "deposit collectible" option. The item zips through the ether into your bank and is ready to be withdrawn next time you are at the bank OR a crafting station. The collectibles tab of your bank is separate from your general bank space, so, again, you don't have to worry about crafting mats sucking up inventory or bank space.

6. I toyed with leatherworking during BW1 (beta weekend 1) but my main crafting focus through all three beta weekends and the stress tests was cooking. I discovered many recipes with unique little bonuses like "+10% downed health" or "+5 health on killing blow of an enemy player"

7. During BW2 I leveled from 11-19 doing nothing but gathering and crafting. That exp rate will probably not hold true in the live game, but even if it is half of what it was during that weekend, you're still talking about a chunk of levels in less than 3 continuous hours of game play.


I STRONGLY recommend players pick up gathering tools from the low level merchants they will encounter in their starting areas. Gather the materials you come across, reap the benefits of the easy exp, and send the materials to guildies you know are crafting.

UPDATE:  Here's a link to my guide for Cooking in Guild Wars 2 and here is a link to my Recipe Book: Novice

Character Wars

I very much want to finish the first draft of Lilly's story before the end of August.  My kids go back to school on the 22nd and Guild Wars 2 starts on the 25th, so I'll be super busy and distracted after that day.  I'm having difficulty focusing, however, because a certain long suffering Roman and a mysterious female Briton keep invading my thoughts.  While they are an entertaining pair, they do NOT belong on a futuristic far-flung space station.

Pesky characters....