A.J. Maguire

Author: ajmaguire

  • Goodreads Giveaway Starts in 1 Day!

     
    That’s right! This is my year of Giveaways — mainly because I won’t have anything new coming out this year since I’m hard at work with school and my writing is going a little slower than normal — but this is great news for some lucky winners out there. 

    The first Giveaway is for 2 copies of Sedition — my first book. 

    If you don’t win, don’t worry! I have two other completely different books that will be scheduled for Giveaway’s throughout the year. And! Somewhere, at some point, I’ll give away a package deal with both Sedition and Saboteur included. I’m not sure where — likely at Coffee Time Romance — but that won’t be until we’ve gotten through Witch-Born and Saboteur at Goodreads. 

     

  • Robots (aka – Why I Love Data)

    I am a science fiction geek.  I love Star Trek, Farscape, Battlestar Galactica (though I haven’t seen all of them yet, I do plan to at some point), and get all perky-cheerful when I see a commercial for a new science fiction flick or series.  And Dr. Who.  Heavens, I think people would murder me if I forgot to mention Dr. Who.

    Anyway, I started thinking about robots today.

    Alright, alright!  I started thinking about robots today after I started a personal re-watch of the Star Trek Next Generation series on Netflix.  I fess up, alright?  My geekdom knows no bounds.

    So!  Robots!

    I tried to think of a list of my top 5 favorite robots of all time.  I figured consistency is good, you know?  I’ve done heroes, villains, why not robots too?

    But … have you got any idea how many robots we’ve got out there?  It was weird just listing them on my paper, but if you Google the subject, the list is overwhelming!  Still … I took to the task, and here’s my list of top 5 Robots.

    Number 5 goes to Gort from The Day the Earth Stood Still.  (Tell me you wouldn’t pee your pants if that thing was in Central Park.)

    Number 4 goes to R2-D2 … Because I just saw a poster that said he was the most offensive character in Star Wars.  But really because he was crazy quirky for a robot and had mad skillz when it came to stopping things from making human pancakes out of Luke and company.

    Number 3 goes to the “fix-its” from Batteries Not Included.  And if you don’t know that movie, don’t tell me.  I’m pretty sure I just dated myself by mentioning it.

    Number 2 goes to AMEE from Red Planet for two reasons.  One, she has 3/4 of my name (Aimee, in case you were wondering).  And two, she reached in and broke one single rib on a character in that movie.  Just – reach, snap, run.  That’s a sweet set of programs she’s got there.

    Number 1 position … likely to be held forever … is Data from Star Trek.  His endeavor to understand humanity might have been funny at times, but for the most part it was absolutely fascinating.  It got me to ask myself why I do some things and what it would mean if I didn’t understand emotions like compassion.

    That’s it!  Those are my top 5 Robots.

    And if anyone comes out and says they’ll just pit a T-850 Terminator on any of my chosen robots, I’ll just make Gort step on them.

  • Top 5 Villains (Literary Version)

    Since I compiled my list of heroes last week, I thought it only fair to dive into the villains this week.  These are the people I just love to hate.  And in actuality, the villain is what makes or breaks a story for me.  We can go into a huge conversation about the difference between an antagonist and a villain, but I’ll just define it in simple terms so I can get to my list.

    A villain has no redeeming qualities.  An antagonist has a glimmer of the redeemable in him — though he likely continues to make the wrong choices.

    It took me all week to compile this list.  I even had to have help from some Facebook friends.  But here we go!

    1) Professor Umbridge from the Harry Potter series.  This woman just got under my skin.  It was the first villain I’ve read about where I actually wanted to reach into the pages of my book and strangle her.

    2) Iago from Othello.  He gets points for exploiting the human tendency toward jealousy.

    3) Black Jack Randall from the Outlander series.  I picked him because he’s … well … politely sadistic.

    4) Professor James Moriarty from Sherlock Holmes.  This one a friend pointed out to me and I have to agree.  It’s been about 6 months since I read any of my Doyle, but yeah … he had to make a character that could put Holmes through a ringer.

    5) Sauron from Lord of the Rings.  I mean … c’mon.  Dude didn’t have a body and he still tried to take over Middle Earth.

    I do have some honorable mentions!  The first is Dorian Grey, who I think falls more under the “antagonist” category because he starts out just fine and then progresses into evil-bastard via the choices he makes.  The second two are from movies, and since this is supposed to be the literary version I can’t put them up here.

    1)  Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty.  Before you laugh, remember that this crazy lady cursed a baby, spent 16 years hunting a child, and then plotted to hold a man hostage so that he could save the day when he was a decrepit old man.  That, and, well, she turned into a frigging dragon.

    2) Guy de Lusignan from Kingdom of Heaven.  My friend at work suggested this one and my immediate response was to coo.  Because, I mean, did you see the movie?

    That’s my list of villains!  If you’ve got any that you think could beat my villains into powdery-doom, I’m happy to hear about them.

  • 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!