A.J. Maguire

Author: ajmaguire

  • Top 5 Heroes (Literature Version)

    Let me start off  by saying that this is not an exhaustive list.  I read every day — to some extent anyway — and therefore my choice of who makes the best hero is likely going to change over time.

    Hero – a man of distinguished courage and ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities.  (Author’s addition — someone with the oomph to carry a story for 300 pages or more.)

    Coming in first place is James Alexander Malcolm Mackenzie Fraser (AKA Jamie) from the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon.  Taking away the swoon factor of a giant red-headed, sword-and-musket-wielding Highlander, Jamie has this vulnerable quality that just makes me want to give him a big hug.  He’s got bravado and gumption, and I’m pretty sure he’s just as bad at strategy as I am because he sort of just does things.  (Like march into an angry mob and try to save an accused witch from being killed.)

    Second place goes to Kelsier from Brandon Sanderson’s Mistorborn – The Final Empire.  No, I didn’t pick Vin or Elund (the two you might expect me to pick from that book) because they irritated me at some point or another.  Vin because she got a little whiny about where she came from and Elund because … yeah … he didn’t get all that much page-time in the book.  But Kelsier … Kelsier was my favorite.  And my coworkers can attest to the fact that I fairly squealed and spun in my chair a few times during the battle moments there at the end.  (I don’t want to spoil it, but I’m a girl and even I was impressed with the magic fight.)

    The number 3 position goes to Nathaniel Bonner from Sara Donati’s Into the Wild.  Sweet, holy bananas!  What I wouldn’t give for that man to comment about my boots.  There’s nothing particularly extraordinary about Nathaniel, he can’t use magic and he doesn’t use a sword, but he is super smart and I’m pretty sure he makes up for the no-sword thing with the tomahawk.

    Coming in at the fourth position is William Harindale.  I know, I know, he’s 17 or so, but the boy has “hero” written all over him.  He stars in Cassandra Clare’s Infernal Devices series and he’s the first character to make me cry in a long time.  (No, I’m not going to tell you which part made me weepy. )

    I had a hard time coming up with a fifth hero.  I almost bent the rules and dove into film and TV heroes, which would have given me people like James T. Kirk and Han Solo to pick from, but I’ve decided that film heroes deserve their own segment.  Heck, Star Trek deserves its own segment of Captains to fight between.  So!  I chose for the final hero … Harry Potter.

    Yes, yes, good old Harry Potter.  But there’s a reason why everyone loved him enough to stick with him for 7 books.  Young, fresh, tragic, lost, and pit up against insurmountable odds … Yeah.  Harry counts as one of my top 5.

    That’s it!  That’s my top 5.  Who are yours?

  • Parenting

    After spending the day crawling in and out of our homemade “fort” (aka: the bunk bed, lots of blankets and a flashlight) I opted to spend about an hour on Sunday night playing a video game with my son.  There are some nice learning websites that you can take young kids to go play, but Hazen decided he wanted to play Mommy’s game.  And at the risk of sounding like the biggest geek …

    Well … I really am a big geek, so there’s no risk here.  So I’ll just tell you — It was Star Trek.

    Hazen got to fly the space ship, which made me a little dizzy but he was giggling so I just let him go for it.  I mean, I love Star Trek.  It’s relatively safe as a game because it has no blood and gore to splatter across the screen, and if you look back on the show you see how it really highlighted the core elements of humanity whilst coming into contact with “new life and new civilization.”

    I suppose I should thank my Mom for pretty much forcing me to see every episode of Star Trek there ever was.  I might have grumbled about it for a year or two, but I grew to really love it.  (Especially the Next Generation.  I never really liked the girlie Troy’s character — too vulnerable and wimpy for my tastes — but Data was absolutely fascinating.  And when I was young I had a crush on Wesley.)

    Anyway!

    So I caught Hazen saying we were going to “kill” the Klingon’s and alarm bells rang, so I told him; “No.  We don’t kill.  We have stun-phaser’s, so they’re not really hurt.  They’re just … forcibly sleeping.”

    *cough*

    Then he caught me cheering when we blew up an enemy ship and he said; “No, Mamma, we don’t kill.”

    Thoroughly chagrined, I agreed.  “No, we didn’t kill them.  We just destroyed them.”

    …. And in the back of my head I was like; ooooh, that is so not better.

    So I tried to compensate; “The ship was empty.  It was just a computer.  A robot.”

    And Hazen said; “Like a Borg!”

    Ah, parenting.  I think the game is rated “PG” or something like that.  All I have to say is … this “Parental Guidance” certainly failed.

     

  • Editing

    I think that I have now edited Deviation more times than any other book I’ve done.  I hand write everything first, so the rough draft was on pen and paper.  The second draft came while I was transcribing the book onto the computer.  The third came a month later.  The fourth I did after my Alpha readers took a gander at it.  And the fifth was done after my Beta reader was done with it.  I am now on a sixth draft, which will be sent in to the editor.  When she sends it back and I take it through that next revision that will be seven complete drafts.

    Seven.

    And, oddly enough, I am not sick of the plot.  Normally after draft five I want nothing more to do with the book in question.  That seems strange somehow.

    Anyway!  It will be going out to the editor sometime this next week.  I’m afraid that flu bug reared its ugly head again and I was down for the count on Friday and Saturday, so I might send it to her on Friday instead of Wednesday.  The 15th was a tentative schedule based on my needs, after all.  I’m hoping she doesn’t mind.  If she does, I’ll just crack out on coffee and burn the midnight oil.  (Which will likely throw me back into being sick again, but … eh … it’s life.)

    I’m very excited for this next step.

  • “I hate Mars”

    As you know, I’ve been hard at work smacking Deviation into shape.  It’s my first science fiction attempt and, quite frankly, scares the spit out of me.  I am not a scientist, though I do find science interesting.  I’ll be sending Deviation to an editor on the 15th of February and sincerely hope she can point out where her suspension of disbelief was stretched a little too far.

    Also, on March 1st, I will be sending out a submission package to TOR.  It should take them 4 to 6 months to get back to me with the rejection letter and in the interim I will be working with this editor to tighten the writing and story line.  In the slim chance that TOR sends a positive note asking for the full manuscript, it will be ready for them.

    But what about my other works in progress?  I know I can’t leave you all with the way Saboteur ended.  (No, I’m not going to spoil it.  Those who’ve already read it are aware that there is a third book in the works.)  Rest assured, I am creeping my way through Usurper.  It’s slow going because all of the plot lines have to come together.  And it’s frigging huge.  But it is still coming along … albeit only 500 words or so at a time.

    Dead Magic, the sequel to Witch-Born has hit that critical turning point in the story line.  I have the last ten chapters mapped out and am getting approximately 3,000 words done a week on it.  I’d be doing more, but you know I’m in school, too.

    So!  Why have I titled this post as “I hate Mars”?

    I’m so glad you asked!

    While I was doing the dishes yesterday, I caught a “soundbyte” from the Deviation edit.  (Meaning I was imagining a certain scene and a snarky bit of dialog caught my attention.)  Because it amused me, I’m going to put it down here as a snippet —

    “I hate Mars.” Newbill said, his hands busily smacking another magazine into his weapon. 

    “Mars hates you back.” Chamberlain had to shout over the report of weapon fire. 

    “Something always tries to eat us!” Reloaded, Newbill took aim and fired. 

  • Holy Goodreads, Batman!

    So I’ve been following Emlyn Chand of Novel Publicity on Google+ for a while, and she started this thing that I’m just going to call the “Goodreads Karma of Awesomeness” where you basically get to meet all the other authors around and everyone just gets one big introduction circle of warm fuzzies and goodness … And I got to do it today.  It was awesome.  I got to troll a whole bunch of author’s goodreads sites and see what they’ve written versus what they’re reading and … yeah …

    I made a whole slew of new “friends” over there, too.  It was green.  Super-green!  (And now I must go watch The Fifth Element again.)

  • Sweet Satisfaction

    There was some confusion with the printer, but I finally got my paperback copy of Saboteur today.  This is the moment when I get to squeal in delight.  I had purchased a Kindle copy — Merry Christmas to me — but I knew that I got a paperback for free from the publisher, it just hadn’t arrived yet.

    It is an undeniably wonderful feeling to see your work bound together on paper.  My Go-Green spirit might cringe a little, but I take a selfish delight in holding the book in my hands.  With my name on it.  My characters filling the space between the covers.  My fantasy world flaunted for any reader to pick up.

    It’s sweet satisfaction.

     

  • Ode to my Kindle

    I finished a book this weekend and was surprised to discover that I could rate it right from my Kindle. Super-fantabulous! I went in and gave it a review on Goodreads, too, but I had to use my computer for that one. I just thought it was great that I could rate the book right then and there. (Especially since my son was busy playing on Disney Junior — I swear, poor Eeyore will never get that tail back on if my son is in charge.)

    Also, I finished the synopsis and cover letter for my Deviation submission. The package has been sent out to a select few trusted individuals who might be able to give me some pointers to fix before my deadline of March 1st.

    I hope everyone has a fantastic Monday!

  • All the right stuff, baby.

    The first week of school literally kicked me in the teeth.  In fact, back on Sunday I had to sit down and put a stranglehold on my schedule so that I could get through the second week of classes.  And here we are, heading into the final two days of the week (Saturday counts now since I have to use it for homework, too) and I am not only right on target …. but I have most of the revamped synopsis done for Deviation.

    By Monday next, I should have the trial package sent out to my writerly friends, who will let me know where I’ve made serious errors so that I can fix it and have it ready to send out by March 1st.

    Today, I am awesome.

    Also!  In my crazy desire to make 2012 a year to remember, I have decided to read a poem a day for the whole year.  I am right on track for that.  As soon as I’m done with Edgar Poe, I’m moving on to Swinburne per the urging of an Australian friend.

    “I stand amid the roar Of a surf-tormented shore” — Thank you, Mr. Poe.  Thank you very much.

  • Why I love my Kindle …

    Alright, so I got myself a Kindle way back in July or something of 2011 knowing that I was buying my big Christmas present several months early.  I had wanted an eReader of some sort for a while before then and was torn between the Nook and the Kindle.  After handling several different versions and trying them out, I decided on the Kindle mainly on the weight issue.  If you’ve never held a Kindle I’ll go ahead and tell you that the version I purchased is really, really light.  It’s not a bother in my hands and the color scheme makes it look like I’m reading off a normal book.

    But the real kicker … the thing that made me fall in love with Kindle … was that I could get my school books on it.  Most of them, anyway.  I do have a couple that are only available in paperback form, but for the most part I have this cheaper, easier version of the text books available to me.

    As if that weren’t enough … I also was able to get my own books – Sedition, Witch-Born, and Saboteur on my Kindle.  I finished another read-through of Sedition just before school started.  I intend to read through Witch-Born on my next break from school, and then Saboteur at the end of the semester.

    And here’s another kicker!  I was able to put some of my Works In Progress on the thing as well, allowing me access to reading every manuscript wherever I am!

    I could also listen to some of the books from my Audible account on it, but really … I prefer putting those on my pocket-sized iPod.

    …. So yes, I love my Kindle.  I adore my Kindle.

  • The Between

    Before school starts next week and I get bogged down with more work than any one person should ever take on — e.g. school, full time work, mother of a four year old child, editing, and writing — I wanted to take a moment to cheer on a friend of mine.  Her first novel came out on Friday (yes, she picked Friday the 13th on purpose, but if you read the book you’ll totally understand) and I am super-pleased for her.  In fact, I’m throwing confetti for her …

    OK, so I’m not really throwing confetti.  I have a four year old and that’s plenty of mess to clean up after.  But I am stoked that she’s taken this step and is published.  I’m even more stoked that she’s published this particular work.  I had the privilege of reading an earlier draft of it and absolutely fell in love with the story.  I’m going to be a brat and wait to write a full review on GoodReads until I’ve read this shiny-new-Kindle version, but I’m sure I’ll love it as much as I loved it the first time around.

    But while I’m at it … I’m going to flaunt the book at all of you dear, dear friends.  You should read The Between by LJ Cohen.  You can find several different formats of the book HERE!