NANP: The Name Game

Joining me today on Names: A New Perspective is Amanda Carlson, author of the fantastic urban fantasy debut from last year, Full Blooded (Review), the first in her Jessica McClain series. As another novel with a rather contemporary setting, at first it might appear that there can’t be much to talk about in this post relative to the idea behind the series, but Amanda does a good job of showing that is not so. The basics still apply, and I’m looking forward to seeing how she progresses on that front in the upcoming sequel Hot Blooded (due April). Here’s what she has to say.

NANP: Importance And Mysteries of Names

Adam Christopher is an author I discovered through Angry Robot last year when I signed up for their Robot Army initiative. Empire State (Review) was a fantastic debut and I wanted to read more of his work, which happened when his second novel Seven Wonders (Review) was released in the second half of 2012. He is most assuredly one of the best debut authors of the year, and this year should be no different, since he has the sequel to Empire State, The Age Atomic coming out soon, a title that I’m really looking forward to. Here’s Adam’s approach to names and their signifiance.

2012 – A Bloody Fantastic Year Ends

So, the year 2012 ended a few days ago, and it’s been an absolute blast, to say the least.

Anyways, to do a small recap of my goals for the year,

1. Write ~420,000 words of both fiction (various submissions and novel projects) and non-fiction (reviews and blogposts).
2. Read 400 novels, comics, novellas, stand-alone short stories (still not sure if these SHOULD be included) and listen to some audio dramas and audiobooks.

At the end of October, I was very close to both of those goals, having crossed the ~472,000-word mark, and was still ahead on the reading goals, as I was at 352/400 on September 30th. You can find the November report here.

Best of the Best Part 2

I last did something like this in July for the six months from January 1st all the way to June 30th. This list is for July 1st and all the way through to December 30th (the last day doesn’t count!). As I mentioned at the end of that list, this isn’t going to be regurgitation of my “Reading Awards” page, but something more varied. The list takes into account everything I’ve read in the last six months.

Let’s see what makes the cut and which comes close then!

Best Debuts of 2012

This year has been an excellent year for debuts, whether it’s science fiction or fantasy or historical fiction or urban fantasy or noir or western or young adult or whatever. Some truly amazing authors have made themselves known, and many of these have gone on to impress with second novels also released this year. In this blog I take a look at the debut novels of the year that I just loved and would recommend far and wide to everybody.

I didn’t actually read that many debut novels this year (from 2012), so the list is going to be unfortunately small – only eight in total, which is why I’m going to do a straight list rather than a Top 6 and 6 Honourable Mentions as I had initially planned.

So let’s have at it, yeah?

NANP: Names Are A Melody

Angry Robot Books launched their Young Adult imprint a few months, called Strange Chemistry. One of the first wave of launch titles includes the arabian-themed pirate fantasy The Assassin’s Curse by Cassandra Rose Clarke. This was my first taste of a YA novel in recent times, and I liked what I saw (my review). The novel shows a lot of promise and I’m waiting for the sequel to come out. In the meanwhile, Cassandra has an original novel coming out from Angry Robot as well, The Mad Scientist’s Daughter, and that one’s on my reading list for early next year. Should be good times! With her arabian-themed setting and characters, here’s what Cassandra had to say on the subject of names and their significance on today’s Names.

Names: A New Perspective Part 2

A little late, but I finally have the schedule of posts down. Post-NaNoWriMo blues and a massive reviewing/reading backlog plus my Advent Reviews series has kept me rather busy. Which reminds me, I still need to do that NaNoWriMo “after-action” report too! Ack! You can read any of the previous posts by using the series tag: “Names A New Perspective“. The previous line-up of authors is here. So, without further ado, here you are.

NANP: Friend or Foe

Today’s guest on Names: A New Perspective is Janet Edwards, who debuted earlier this year with Earth Girl, a novel I’ve been meaning to read for quite a while, having heard a lot of praise for it in some corners. As has been the trend throughout this series, Janet has a very unique and interesting approach to the names she has used in her novel. Reading her post made me rather excited to read the novel, which I will hopefully be able to do soon!

November Report

November ended a few days ago, and so far this year, it was my busiest month ever, in terms of writing; busiest by far, as you’ll see after the break.

Anyways, to do a small recap of my goals for the year,

1. Write ~420,000 words of both fiction (various submissions and novel projects) and non-fiction (reviews and blogposts).
2. Read 400 novels, comics, novellas, stand-alone short stories (still not sure if these SHOULD be included) and listen to some audio dramas and audiobooks.

At the end of October, I was very close to both of those goals, having crossed the ~377,100-word mark, and was still ahead on the reading goals, as I was at 304/400 on September 30th. You can find the October report here.

Advent Calendar 2012

My apologies that this is going out so late, but the whole idea was a very spur of the moment thing so I couldn’t get this ready in time.  Just to recap, this page will link to all the Advent Reviews that go up this month, whether on this blog, on The Founding Fields, or to the guest spots I’ve arranged with some blogger friends. Enjoy, and let me know what you thought about all these stories! I would have made the whole thing snazzier, but can’t figure out how to do side-by-side content in WordPress! Click on the links to go to the reviews.

NANP: The Naming Scheme

Welcome back to Names: A New Perspective after a long break! I was quite busy last month with my NaNoWriMo project, which is still ongoing for me, so I had little time to organise guest posts and stuff. Fear not though, I’m kicking off the “second wave” of the series today, starting off with Lee Collins, who wrote The Dead of Winter, one of the most fun books I’ve read this year, and a western urban fantasy with vampires to boot (my review). Seriously speaking, Lee Collins is in contention in my book for best debut of the year, since The Dead of Winter was such a damn good read. Angry Robot has done a great job this year with their debut authors. On the subject of names and their significance in narratives and settings, Lee had this to say:

Advent Reviews Day 2: Osiris by E. J. Swift

For Day 2 of my Advent Reviews series, I bring to you my thoughts on the this debut novel by author E. J. Swift, the first in the Osiris Project series being published by Night Shade Books, who have put out such gems as Teresa Frohock’s Miserere: An Autumn’s Tale and Nathan Long’s Jane Carver of Waar.