Reviewing has been a hot subject among kidlit bloggers lately, ever since the magazine n+1 came up with an article about a week ago which criticized—though not in such direct terms—bloggers of not being objective, honest enough with their reviews, of not posting enough negative reviews and of lacing their positive reviews with facile praise. The main question seems to be: is it possible to be unbiased in a cozy environment where the people who post friendly comments under the bloggers’ posts are often the same people who request reviews from these bloggers? In other words, is it possible to be objective in the blogosphere, where authors, publishers, publicists, reviewers and librarians are in friendly terms with each other in such blog communities as Live Journal?

In a perfect world a reviewer should never review a book by a person he/she knows. But, as usual, more often than not, what is ideal in theory is not realistic in the real world, and this ‘sin’ is not only committed by bloggers, but also by professional reviewers who write for online and print review publications.

Another issue seems to be the lack of format which many (maybe most?) bloggers have when writing reviews. Unlike the ‘legitimate’ reviewers who seem to have a preference for a ‘standard’ structure—an interesting lead/opening sentence, a short summary of the plot without ever giving away spoilers or the ending, and an intelligent, fair, tactful evaluation—the bloggers write about books anyway they want. They have the freedom to write in any length or style without a thought to format—even to the point of giving away spoilers or relating the ending of a book. This freedom comes with the territory of being a blogger. But then, the questions arise… Are bloggers ‘real’ reviewers? What defines a review? After all, there are many types of reviews—academic and long, light and short, and snippets like those in such publications as Library Journal.

Different review sites and publications have different guidelines. Are blogger reviews a new, different type of review? Should we draw a distinction between bloggers who are simply readers and post ‘reader reviews’ and ‘legitimate’ reviewers who post ‘real’ ones on their blogs? After all, just like on Amazon, there are reader reviews and reviewer reviews. Are bloggers the lowly counterparts of legitimate reviewers? Is this an elitist attitude?

I find these questions fascinating because I think there are no easy answers. As usual, opening a discussion about what is right and wrong is like opening a can of worms.

A couple of years ago, this dilemma started with the emerging online review sites... I remember how librarians and bookstores often dismissed them as ‘not legitimate’. Online review sites have come a long way. Now it's the bloggers who are being attacked.

Ultimately, I think we're not giving enough credit to the discerning reader of reviews. It's so easy to tell a good review from a cheesy one guilty of facile praise! There are good and bad reviewers everywhere. Serious blogger reviewers aren't going to be stupid enough to post overly positive reviews because if the reader buys a book based on that review and then finds that book to be poorly written, that blogger will lose all credibility and that reader won't come back to this blogger for more reviews. Honesty and fairness go with our job as reviewers, without it, we're nothing but weak, cheap publicity. That is not to say we should be nasty or mean... which brings me to the writing of negative reviews...

I personally think there are too many good books out there to be spending time writing about the bad ones (even negative reviews are a type of publicity!). Unless it's a book that has been written by a famous author and/or heavily hyped, I won't bother posting negative reviews on my blog and newsletters (this wouldn't be the case, however, if the book was assigned by a review site/publication, in which case I wouldn’t have a choice but to write the negative review).

One thing the blogging technology has done is bring books and literature closer to the public and, let’s face it, the average person is so busy and/or has such a short attention span that long, insightful reviews are not the most practical thing in the world. Blogger reviews are like quick tasty treats of information for people on the run who enjoy reading about books. In the end, and in spite of the ‘slippery’ questions mentioned above, I’m all for anything that brings literature closer to the public.

©2007 Mayra Calvani / All Rights Reserved.

Ask Dr Joan: Name Calling

Dear Doc Joan,

My critique group gets way too picky about what to call our characters. For instance, in my Old West novel, can you tell me what’s wrong with naming my hero and heroine my favorite names, Chip and Madison? – Name Caller

Dear Name Caller,

What’s wrong? Those are names popular to a different era. In the Old West, if parents had named their son "Chip" people might have thought that was his middle name to go with the first name of "Cow." If they had named their daughter "Madison," people might have assumed she was the namesake of the fourth U.S. President.

If you don’t have a feel for appropriate names by reading in a particular time frame, use your computer. In your web browser, type in "popular baby names," and numerous sites will come up, such as a social security listing by years. Other sites offer names from around the world, and…well, you get the picture.

For an old-fashioned approach, there are also baby name books, old yearbooks, and telephone books. The important thing is to pick names that contribute to characterization and setting.

End the name blame – Doc Joan

I started writing stories when I was around seven. When I was thirteen, Arizona Highways Magazine sent me a check for $50 for a short story about riding a mule down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Getting that check hooked me, but I must say it was the last easy money I ever got for my writing.

Tell us about your latest thriller, DEATH GAME. What was your inspiration for this story? Is this your favorite genre?

Death Game is the beginning of a series about a family traumatized by their father’s secret life. The father may or may not be dead; you’ll have to read the series to find out. Death Game starts when the past reaches back and pulls the family’s youngest son, fifteen-year-old Jimmie O’Brien, into a murder plot. Jimmie’s sister Cooper tries desperately to extricate her brother. But she’s battling not only some very bad people but her brother’s misguided hero-worship of his missing father.

I’m a strong believer that family secrets are dangerous and perhaps that inspired the idea for the series as much as anything else. When children aren’t allowed to tell the truth about their family, I think they grow up both secretly ashamed and deeply confused. In my case, I’m living this out because my daughter is adopted from a third world country and she was born in difficult circumstances. From almost the first month my husband and I adopted her, we have told her the absolute truth about everything. We’ll see if that proves to be a good strategy.

People like to lose themselves in thrillers. They like to "step into them" and that requires the author to be particularly adept at creating a convincing sense of place and a character moving through it. A good thriller writer should be able to "take" the reader somewhere, make them "hold their breath" as they see the lead character totally focused while their risk level increases. It’s a type of self-transcendence—a truly great thriller writer can make an imaginary experience more vivid than one you actually have. This is the hardest part of writing a thriller, but also the most fun.

The easiest part is recreating exotic locations. I love to travel and I’m planning to send my heroine all over the world before I’m done. Some of the places I will have already been too, others I will make sure to visit before I write. Travel is a blast, whether you’re a reader or a writer.

I used to only be able to write in the evening. I’d put on a pot of coffee and write until dawn, snatch a few hours and then go off to work. My five-year-old daughter ended that; she’s a lot more demanding than a day job!

I’m writing full-time now, but it’s still hard to find uninterrupted time. Sigh. Maybe when Carmen is older I can start pulling all-nighters again. I love how the world seems to hold its breath in the early hours of the morning…it always inspires me.

Okay. I’m weird. For the most part, I enjoy book promotion. I have a strong marketing background and I like to try new things—see what works and what doesn’t. I also love the "press-the-flesh" part of book promotion, the book signings and readings. You meet fascinating people and I consider it all research for a forthcoming story.

For instance, at a book signing in a little Hawaii jungle town called Hanalei the other day, I met a gifted twenty-eight-year-old painter. Moses became a quadriplegic in 2002 from an accident and now paints holding the brush in his mouth. His art was technically proficient as well as extremely moving and he’s doing very well with it.

A month or so ago, I met a twenty-something woman who teaches scuba diving to cruise ship visitors. She took me out for my first night dive a while back. Moray eels were slinking through our legs!

It was terrifying.

I’ve already mentioned that Death Game is the first in a series. The sequel is about 2/3’s done. In the meantime, I just sent a non-fiction manuscript out to an interested publisher yesterday. It’s an inspirational survival guide to breast cancer.

Perhaps that cancer guide will find a wider audience than just patients, because my take on the disease is quite different. The whole experience of facing a threat like cancer is something I would wish on everyone—without the disease, of course. About 90 percent of what used to bother you disappears forever from your life. One small example: the whole concept of a "bad hair day" doesn’t exist for me anymore. I’m just happy to have any hair at all. I read women’s magazines these days and laugh myself silly. I can’t even imagine being bothered by things they focus on. Some women never cared about those things to begin with, but I used to let my fears trap me.

It used to be the writing itself. Now it’s the people I meet, particularly if they enjoy my writing. It was cancer that changed that for me as well. And…adopting from a country where the children have such a tough time just getting enough to eat. I don’t live inside myself so much anymore.

The Bible. I started reading the King James Version when all the other kids were reading Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys and the beauty of the language sank into my soul. I also loved all the graphic violence and sex in the Old Testament. My family was pretty anti-church in those days, so I kept a copy hidden and read it at night when everyone was asleep. Of course, that made it all the more thrilling.

I definitely consider myself a born writer. Or maybe it might be better to say, a born storyteller. As long as I can remember, I had stories in my head and eventually, I started putting those stories down on paper. In the meantime, I was always reading and I think that reading taught me about the craft of writing.

The darkness of the human spirit is something that calls to readers because they want to know what makes such dark characters click. In addition, there is a universal connection to the fight between good and evil and I think paranormals, especially vampire novels, touch upon that universal battle. Vampires represent the darkest parts of our personalities. Those dangerous things that call to us. The sensuality of the vampire’s kiss and the passion that comes from sharing yourself in such an intimate way. All of these things attract readers to the darkness in the stories.

I had just finished writing a string of contemporary romances and wanted to try my hand at something different. Definitely something that was darkly different. I was tired of the whole Happily-Ever-After and heroes that were all goodness and light. I decided to write a story where the heroes had pasts that had showed them a harsh aspect of life that they still carried within them. I also wanted to explore what would happen when a kick-ass female FBI Agent met a protective Old World gentleman – a vampire. DARKNESS CALLS was born out of that inspiration and originally, it was much more violent and didn’t have a happily-ever-after.

I also do straight romantic suspense and women’s fiction. I say straight romantic suspense because my paranormal novels are actually paranormal romantic suspense novels. I would have to say that I do love romantic suspense the most because of the inherent danger and excitement those stories contain.

I’m usually up around 5 a.m. in the morning to get ready for work. I still have a full-time job as a lawyer in Manhattan. By 6 a.m. I’m on a train to New York City and during the train ride, I’m almost always at work on my laptop, writing a story. When I get to NYC, I walk to my office. It’s a nice way to clear my head and get ready for work. Since I’m an Intellectual Property lawyer, I usually have a mess of paper on my desk that requires attention. At the end of the day, it’s a walk back to the train station where I plot out what I will work on during the trip home. At night, I usually relax with my family unless I’ve got a pressing deadline or promo materials to create. Weekends are when I do the bulk of my writing, normally 3 or 4 hours on Saturday and Sunday.

I definitely follow a disciplined writing schedule. I think you have to do that if you want to be a published author since publishing houses aren’t looking for just one book – they want to know you can deliver more than one work to them. I don’t normally go by the number of pages. I stick to the train ride and if necessary, night time writing as well as weekend writing in order to meet the deadlines I have.

The secret to the productivity is perseverance and support. The latter is key since my family helps me out in whatever ways they can so I can work on my writing. It’s tough sometimes to balance work, writing and family and I couldn’t do it without the support of my family. As for deadlines, I guess being a lawyer makes me uber-crazy about keeping those deadlines. There are times when editor requests require moving some deadlines around, but in general, we’ve been able to keep to the schedules we’ve set for all the various novels.

I watch videos and listen to music. I find that both of those help spark my creativity. Videos in particular are great, especially when it’s a really good movie or television show. Analyzing the story arcs and dialogue really help to inspire me when I’ve hit a block or need some inspiration.

Networking is an important part of any business. I would highly recommend to all authors, whether published or pre-published, to go to conferences to meet not only other authors, but agents, editors and readers. As for book signings, they can be a crap shoot at times. You could go from having a good crowd to having no one come by if the weather is good or bad, or it’s a holiday, etc. Stock signings, namely where you go from on store to the other and sign the books, seem to yield results as booksellers love signed books to offer to their patrons.

I sold my first ten books without an agent. I found that getting a good agent is almost as hard as getting published and that a bad agent was worse than no agent at all. The key to finding a good agent is to check them out thoroughly to make sure they are reputable. If an agent is part of AAR, that’s a good sign as AAR has a code of ethics to which the agents have to adhere. Next, if you and the agent seem to hit it off, sit down and let the agent know what you want to do with your career. The agent needs to know what you want and expect and should also provide you an idea of whether those goals are reasonable and if so, how the agent plans to help you meet those goals. Finally, if an agent asks for money – run. No one should ask you for money up front. The agent should take her pay from the sales she makes for you.

The hardest part is hearing over and over that editors are looking for "fresh" voices or ideas since oftentimes it seems as if they are unwilling to consider ideas that are different. I am lucky that the publishers that I’ve had have been receptive to different ideas. In particular, Leslie Wainger and Stacy Boyd at Harlequin were willing to take a risk on my different vampire novels and I’m very grateful that they did.

Much like the different sides you find in life, the yin and yang of things, you need to remember balance when writing a dark novel. So, for all the dark elements in my novels, I try to find the corresponding light to balance that. Why? Again, I think the appeal of paranormals is that universal good versus evil battle and I believe that paranormal writers fight that battle in their own unique ways in each novel.

The opening chapters are the hardest things for me. I really want to establish the tone of the novel as well as the conflict of the characters. I think it’s important to do that in the first three chapters in order to draw the readers into wanting to continue the story.

That’s such a tough choice. There are so many wonderfully dark paranormal romance novels out there. If we’re talking about modern writers, I would suggest starting with early Laurell Hamilton for stories that are dark and sexy. Kim Harrison is another favorite.